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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This past weekend on the way to Florida to visit my brothers, I read about Squarespace’s advertising history. (Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/13/business/how-did-squarespace-know-podcasts-would-get-this-big.html). In 2009, Anthony Casalena, the founder of Squarespace, paid $20,000 to advertise on a tech podcast. While that was a lot for a small, young company (Casalena had started his business just six years earlier in a dorm room in 2003), Casalena said the ...
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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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Inspired and hand woven from sturdy natural vines, this country style retro chic bread basket makes an excellent serving dish to any kitchen table or event as it would at an upscale restaurant. Available in other shapes and sizes.
CALAISIO
natural elegance, extraordinary durability
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Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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Nice to see Daniel Silva from Vista Alegre. Daniel took time to show me why Vista Alegre is the “top banana” of Portuguese tableware. Vista Alegre commissioned 46 illustrators to design espresso cups based on a story. The pieces are very creative.
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There’s a hidden month in the calendar: the 13th month. Those that follow this calendar often are very productive and lead successful ventures--as well as vex their significant others. What is the 13th month? It’s the sum of working Saturdays each week for about a year. There are 30 days in a month, and about 52 Saturdays in a year. In fact, there are almost 14 months in a year if you work Sundays, too. The 13th month is a calendar that most professional athletes, scholars, and...
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I enjoyed today’s WSJ article about stores teaming up to take on Amazon. Since Bridge has collectivized 800 indie shops to push back against Amazon, we can relate to efforts to help stores team up and boost their communities.
The article mentions Shopify and its popularity among indie shops. Shopify, along with BigComerce, Big Cartel, Wix, and Magento, are platforms that have helped indies to grow online independent of Amazon.
While we appreciate any platform that helps indies...
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Today’s WSJ shares that independent stores, including hardware stores, book shops, and pharmacies, have teamed up to stop Amazon’s bad practices. The group, called Small Business Rising, seeks to use anti-trust laws to prevent Amazon marketplace from selling its own goods—which compete with retailers using the platform. Amazon has been shown to use a retailer’s customer and sales data and bypass the retailer (it’s own customer) in order to make a bigger profit. ...
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We are off to the Races!! The Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes are all on the calendar and ready to run! In honor of this “return to normalcy”, we have created a special gift set to celebrate. Two Kentucky 9oz julep cups, 2 oz. bottle of Evan Williams mint syrup, red and white paper straws and 2 different recipe cards. Your Classic Mint Julep is just a splash of good bourbon away!
The Times' John Herrman covers what it takes to go without Amazon.
Amazon has appeared to upset people across the spectrum, as "anticapitalist liberal college student[s] and...uber-capitalist conservative grandparents are both boycotting Amazon.”
Yet, Amazon is now so large that it's hard to escape its reach. Even the The New York Times' website is hosted by Amazon AWS services.
FedEx bought a ShopRunner, and online shipping platform that had already received $115 in venture-capital backing and an investment from UPS last year, shares RetailDive.
One doesn't shop on ShopRunner, rather one shops on other stores and looks for the ShopRunner logo when checking out. (Learn more about how it works here: https://www.shoprunner.com/how-it-works .)
A missing component for FedEx and UPS remains an e-commerce platform, such as Shopify, Big Cartel, ...
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Our indie retailers are being hunted by four major forces:
Amazon
Big-box stores
Brands (selling direct)
Zola
While we've known about Amazon and big-box stores for some time, they are becoming more sophisticated. Amazon is so powerful now that it's the focus of anti-trust inquiries by the government. Big-box stores are spending millions on their digital operations.
Bridge's goal is to give indie stores great software that reverses the gains being made by these forces.
...
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There is a general feeling among the public that Amazon is a ruthless behemoth. A survey conducted by CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey showed that 59% of the public think Amazon is bad for business. "This represents a significant shift from just two years ago, when opinion was nearly split between those saying Amazon is bad for small businesses (37%) and those saying it’s good (33%)."
One of the many reasons Amazon is viewed this way is because of ...
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Excerpt:
Amazon.com has removed 20,000 product reviews after a Financial Times (FT) investigation suggested that some of the site's top U.K. reviewers may have profited from leaving positive ratings, reports Business Insider. The paper's analysis showed nine of Amazon's top 10 U.K. reviewers dished out five-star reviews to products from little-known Chinese brands. The FT found the same products in Facebook groups and forums that offer free products or money in exchange for ratings....
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Part of my job is to review registry software. I ensure that it works well for retailers, registrants, and gift-givers (family and friends). I also assess whether it offers good value (price vs results).
A retailer recently shared with me that it uses the service MyRegistry.com. I reviewed the retailer's site and how a customer would make a registry purchase via MyRegistry.com. For privacy purposes, I changed the name of the store in the screenshots shown.