When talking about memberships and subscriptions, these two business models are sometimes interchanged but actually are different. They often differ in their pricing, customers, and offerings. A subscription is often not a membership, but a membership often encompasses a subscription. A membership is often an elevated and more powerful subscription that collectivizes and leverages the subscribers.
What They Have In Common
With both models, you often pay a fee and receive a ...
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Royal Crown Derby is pleased to share a video of the BBC News feature yesterday evening. This video shows a small insight into their premium quality commemoratives, handcraft techniques and their relationship with royalty across the globe.
In the past, we’ve used spin classes and gyms as inspiration for Bridge. We see them as metaphors for helping retail business owners. The founders of SoulCycle, Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, must have been eavesdropping on us: they are expanding their spinning approach to another sphere. The Times reports they have started Peoplehood, a business that seeks to help people via self-help (group-help?) sessions. It’s SoulCycle for the soul&...
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Bridge has added a new feature to your retail shop. At the top of your Bridge Store, there is now a banner that promotes shopping local. This banner quickly conveys that buying from your Store helps your store and your community.
The text says, "Thank you for supporting your local shop & people in your community."
Introduction banners like this are important. We see them on a variety of sites, including on Bookshop.org and Faire.com. (Read more about the ...
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Your Bridge has a new feature: you can more easily message friends about products. On each item's page, there is now a "Message via Bridge" link. When you click this link, a modal will appear, letting you select your friend and share the item. If you wish, you can include a customized message. When you share the message, a message alert will appear when the member views their Bridge account. They will also receive an email alert that you sent them a message.
About two weeks ago in Charleston, SC, in spin class where I sounded like I was getting a hair transplant, I enjoyed being at once together with my friends in the class and yet competing with them. When they peddled harder and stood up, I wanted to also. Our competing didn't mean that there was one winner and everyone else lost. It wasn’t a zero-sum game. In that spin class, we all won. After that class, we all felt great. Competition is an ...
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Stores and brands sometimes ask us: How does Bridge compare to Faire?
I thought we'd compare the two service providers.
Similarities: Bridge & Faire
Audience. Both service the retail industry. In particular, both service brands and retailers. Bridge also services sales reps, and Faire tries to steer clear of them--which is one reason reps don't like Faire much.
Delivery method. Both are online platforms.
Service offered. Faire is a wholesale marketplace. It
We've added a new feature to your Bridge: customers and staff can now more quickly access your Bridge.
We've given you QR codes that point to your important pages.
Over the last two years, QR codes have grown in popularity. QR codes are a quick way to access websites--especially sub pages of a website.
Without QR codes, customers and staff have to Google your website. Then, once they find it, they have to navigate to the correct page, such as the registry home page or the reviews
An article in today’s Times cites the high cost of acquiring customers, which ranges from $100 to $800. Excerpt:
“Estimates of an often-cited retail metric known as customer acquisition costs range from $100 to more than $800 per customer, said Daniel McCarthy, a professor at Emory University’s Goizueta School of Business, who has done extensive research in the field.”
Physical retail is one of the most expensive ways to acquire customers. An online ...
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Jeff Lawson, CEO of Twilio, a software company valued at $28 billion, was recently interviewed in the Wall St. Journal. When he shared who his advisors are, I was surprised to see Danny Meyer, the restaurant kingpin who owns Shake Shack (another publicly-traded company). Mr. Lawson read Mr. Meyer’s book “Setting the Table” and was impressed to learn about the difference between service and hospitality. Service is the delivery of the technical aspects of ...
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Our job at Bridge is fighting for indie stores. A key indicator of our success is when we give your store more online orders. An important step in giving you more orders is: giving you more products online.
Good news: you have the Product Pass. This grants your business the power to sync with unlimited Product Syncing brands for free. This is the best way to fill your website with products.
Benefits:
The Pass allows you to sync with unlimited brands.
Businesses like Walmart, Disney, and Discovery are bundling services and adding the “+” suffix to denote them (e.g. Disney+, Discovery+, W+, etc.). In a recent article in RetailDive, we learn that Walmart is giving its customers free, six-month trial Spotify accounts. I think W+ bundling services is smart. Last week, I compared running a gym to offering software. I spoke about bundling services with things that people like to increase their usage, such as work ...
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How are brands helping their stores--and themselves? They are telling retailers that Bridge is a sales solution for them. For example, Pampa Bay doubled its sales vs. last year on the Bridge platform. One way Pampa Bay increased its sales is by consistently promoting its Bridge service across various mediums. When one visits the Pampa Bay site, one can see the platforms the brand uses in the upper right-hand corner. We can see the brand uses Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bridge. Pampa...
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There are approximately 40 online e-commerce providers. These software providers help other businesses sell online by offering them the ability to run an online store. These providers include Bridge as well as Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce, BigCartel, Square, and Weebly. Does Bridge offer a different (better?) experience than these other platforms? We believe the answer is yes. We also think our 960 retail clients agree: 99.7% of our retailers retain our service each month.
In a recent NY Times article about working out, the author Christie Aschwanden gives readers tips on how to make working out more enjoyable. (Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/well/move/habits-motivation-exercise.html). In reading this, I saw many parallels between working out and helping our stores get their websites ‘in shape.’ The author encourages readers to not think of working out as exercise and instead think of it as "hanging out with friends...
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Peloton’s new CEO, Barry McCarthy, was recently interviewed in the New York Times (Read the article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/business/dealbook/barry-mccarthy-interview-peloton.html). The authors asked Mr. McCarthy if he thought that everyone who needs a workout bike already had one. They questioned where else a company making stationary exercise bikes can go (…an ironic question for a bike product that literally can’t move). The Times wanted to know what ...
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I recently saw an advertisement for Windows 11 in Wired magazine. I thought: “Wow, finally something from Microsoft that someone can understand: a logical name for their software offering.” I recall a time when Microsoft had a confusing litany of software names including: NT, 98, 2000, Millennium (ME), Windows XP, and Vista--before finally relegating those clumsy names to the desktop recycle bin and adopting a simple, progressive number system. Apple has been naming its ...
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Most e-commerce platforms isolate you and leave you adrift. Bridge connects you with your business friends.
Bridge's unique features:
Built-in Social Network: Friend your business friends on Bridge. This allows you to share news and files, message each other, support accomplishments with one another, and share your passions.
Product Syncing Between Retailers and Brands: Save $1,000 and 50 hours on every 1,000 products you add to your store by using Bridge's