I’m writing to sadly share that my dad Don Solarek passed away last week. He was quiet, thoughtful, and would gladly walk in New York City from the Battery to Harlem.
Don always had time to chat with me, share a story, give a lesson, and encourage me. He helped me with my paper route at 6 am when it was 3º in Rochester. He came to every high school cross country race and wrestling match—which were often held around 3:30 pm. Likely not ...
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September 21, 2012
September 21, 2012
Bridge member Arthur Court grades Solarek Studio's work
From Arthur Court regarding our recent website re-design for it:
August 29, 2012
Re: Review of Solarek Studio
It was our pleasure to work with Solarek Studio on the redesign of our website this year. Jason and his team helped us from start to finish, offering support and advice at every stage. During the whole process, from early design, page mockup, beta testing and then launch, the service we received was outstanding.
Arthur Court reviews Solarek Studio website design work
From Arthur Court regarding our recent website redesign for it:
August 29, 2012
Re: Review of Solarek Studio
It was our pleasure to work with Solarek Studio on the redesign of our website this year. Jason and his team helped us from start to finish, offering support and advice at every stage. During the whole process, from early design, page mockup, beta testing and then launch, the service we received was outstanding.
August 8, 2011 If you feature products on your website, you know that it can take a lot of time to keep the photos and information current. The Bridge is an innovative approach to solving this problem for retailers, connecting brands, shopkeepers and customers online by "stocking...
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June 21, 2011
June 21, 2011
Start a quick, quality e-commerce store
Know someone that needs an e-commerce website? Bridge catalog now offers your friends quick, quality e-commerce stores.
We work with fashion stores, sporting goods companies, and any "wouldn't-it-be-cool" idea your friend has to sell something.
We are happy to share that five retailers chose to join Bridge thus far in June. This addition marks a 20% increase in members.
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June 11, 2011
June 11, 2011
Easily edit any product in your catalog
You can now easily edit any item you add to your Bridge catalog. Simply browse to the item in your public catalog, and if you're logged in, you can edit the item directly from the public page. You don't need to edit the item in an admin tool, then browse to the public site to confirm your changes are made. You can edit and confirm changes on one page.
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November 9, 2010
November 9, 2010
Arthur Court Designs gives a review of Solarek Studio's Bridge sales service
"We find the e-commerce management tool that Solarek Studio set up for Athur Court to be very well designed and easy to use.
I've showed it to colleagues even outside the industry - such as those that do Quality Assurance at Oracle - and they have raved about the beautiful layout.
We specifically had a great experience with Solarek's Bridge sales service this week. Due to the Bridge service, one of our retail partners was...
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October 12, 2010
October 12, 2010
DeVine sends e-mail promoting Bridge sales service to luxury retailers
DeVine, the New Jersey-based distributor of premium tableware products, sent an e-mail to its 400+ retail clients today promoting the Bridge luxury sales service.
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September 23, 2010
September 23, 2010
For Brands/Distributors
A brand asked me today a few questions about the Bridge. My response is below.
How will the brand make more money with the Bridge? 1) A brand makes money by making more online sales via retailers' websites. Instead of a retailer having few items from a brand for sale on its site, the retailer will have 100s or 1,000s. The home goods industry is very reliant on bridal and gift registries. If a brand is not on a retailer's website, it's not on the bridal registry, and sales ...
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September 12, 2010
September 12, 2010
Sales update
In 2008, the Bridge helped retailers sell $49,000+ worth of goods In 2009, the Bridge helped retailers sell $62,000+. This year, as of today, the Bridge as helped retailers sell $79,000+. With four months left in the year, we may well reach $120,000. As such, this year the Bridge may double the value it provides to retailers.
Please note: these numbers above only include online sales, and not orders due to the Bridge but placed via telephone. As such, the total sales attributable to the ...
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Bridge analogy: sell gallons vs. ounces of luxury products
When explaining the Bridge, sometimes an analogy works well. Currently, the marketplace is using individual water bottles to manage it's inventory. There is a lot of waste in this approach. The Bridge lets brands create a 'tap' through which retailers can 'pour' the brand's product into the retailer's website. The more water that retailers have, the better it is for retailers and brands. The retailers can in turn sell the product in ...
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March 23, 2010
March 23, 2010
DeVine e-news about the Bridge
DeVine sent this e-news to retailers today explaining the Bridge services.
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January 27, 2010
January 27, 2010
New free service for retailers by Solarek Studio We are launching a new service today that helps retailers find hard to locate items, or unload excess product. For example, if a retailer can sell four placesettings, but only has three, the retailer would create a FREE posting on the Retailers Exchange saying it needs this fourth placesetting.
Likewise, a retailer could have four vases, and wish to sell them. It could post for free these items on the website.
The person that makes the post lists ...
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How does a product get from a brandβs website to a retailerβs website?
Current way of doing business
Step 1. A brand adds 1,000s of product images, prices, descriptions, dimensions, and other product data to its site.
Step 2. Hundreds of retailers do the exact same thing. They independently add 1,000s of product images, prices, descriptions, and dimensions to their site. The duplication of these actions is expensive.
There are massive inefficiencies in this system. 100βs of retailers are updating ...
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December 17, 2009
December 17, 2009
Dear Bridge Partners,
I hope you're well.
There was some confusion recently, and I wanted to clarify it.
The Bridge is a service by the Solarek Studio (not a brand or distributor) that syncs data from another site to yours.
Solarek invented and maintains the syncing.
The brands/distributors do not receive financial compensation for the Bridge. (They benefit from having all of their product available online on your site.)
You could manually download all of a brands'/distributors' 10,000+ product ...
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August 26, 2009
August 26, 2009
Our clients' sales are up +22% while the industry is down -35%
Sales for the overall home goods industry are down by 35%, but for our Bridge partners they are up. Please see the accompanying chart. This shows a distributor's average retailer sales. Most of the distributor's retailers are down 35%, whereas our Bridge retailers' sales are up from 22% to 98%. These numbers are based on the first seven months of 2008 vs. the first seven months of 2009.
About the Solarek Studio Bridge Solarek Studio ...
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March 11, 2009
March 11, 2009
High Google Ranking for Tableware and Home Goods Brands
Last week we did an assessment of how a client's web site is ranking in Google. We are pleased with the results for www.SallieHome.com.
On Sallie's site, we offer 54 brands for sale. Eighteen of these brands (that link to her site) appear on Google's first page of results. That is a 33.3% first page ranking.
Nine brands appear on page two. That is 16.5%.
Thus, the 50% of Sallie's brands when Googled appear on page 1 or 2 of Google and create ...
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