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  1. News from Us
  2. News from Members
  3. Events
  4. Press
  5. Dollars & Sense
  6. Profile Stories
  7. Updates
  8. Training Calendar
  9. Training Videos
  10. Jobs
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38 Results:

October 27, 2024 Real Estate & Indie Shops
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Real Estate & Indie Shops
October 27, 2024
The Wall St. Journal shares why indies are struggling with the commercial real estate market.  

  View Post
May 21, 2024 Shopper Reviews 💫
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Shopper Reviews 💫
May 21, 2024
Below are three reviews from shoppers who bought a gift from a merchant using our software: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"The website was so user friendly and I had a wedding gift ordered in no time at all! Highly recommend."
~ Robin Burger in TX
April 21, 2024

Shopped at Tipton Hurst in Arkansas

.................
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"Great website...extremely user-friendly. Easy and fast. Thank you!"
~ Kent Beaty in OK
April 27, 2024

Shopped at The Finery Jackson in ...
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January 29, 2024 Spotlight Pattern: Mepra Fantasia
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Spotlight Pattern: Mepra Fantasia
January 29, 2024
It’s hard to believe that MEPRA’s sophisticated technicolor collection FANTASIA is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year because its incandescent chromatic complexion is as fresh today as its 1989 debut.
................................

The brilliantly-hued fantasia comes from the Italian silversmiths Mepra, post-war business founded in 1947 by the Prandelli family, four generations fashioning flatware in the industrial Lumezzane Valley, about 90 minutes east of Milan. ...
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December 17, 2023 The new threat: Chinese apps backed with Chinese factories
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The new threat: Chinese apps backed with Chinese factories
December 17, 2023
The Atlantic shares how Chinese factories have found a new way around U.S. retailers and into our homes: Chinese apps. SHEIN and other Chinese apps are bypassing Amazon to be a new leader in Chinese goods.  In addition to Amazon, Target, Walmart, and indie shops now have a new group of digital competitors embedded in customers’ pockets. 

Except from The Atlantic article: 

MATERIAL WORLD
IS THIS HOW AMAZON ENDS?
An open embrace of cheap foreign products has helped ...
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December 13, 2023 Big is getting small
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Big is getting small
December 13, 2023
The average retail footprint is the smallest it has been in 17 years, shares today’s The Wall Street Journal.  

Macy’s plans to open 30 mini-Macy’s, which are about 80% smaller than a normal store, by 2025. 

This trend bodes well for our indie shops: many are already in a modest retail footprints. 

Read the full article: 
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/the-american-store-is-shrinking-7603e979
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November 18, 2023 Dive into you newest GOLD crush for the Holidays
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Dive into you newest GOLD crush for the Holidays
November 18, 2023
The striking sculptural form of Beatriz Ball's large and multifunctional THANNI Soho Onyx Large Bowl (White) is both a luxe artistic statement and a perfect match for the lifestyle demands of today. The brilliant, artisan-crafted bowl features a sloping, undulating white exterior that opens up to reveal the beauty of the gold surface inside. Artfully designed, the sensuous bowl is the very essence of versatility. Its on-trend styling and impressive scale makes the bowl a stunning centerpiece, ...
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October 6, 2023 Why rent a storefront when you can use a street for free?
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Why rent a storefront when you can use a street for free?
October 6, 2023
I see this situation all over the city.  Amazon shipping companies are “warehousing” our public space. They put up cones and are permanently setup and conducting business. They use public space for private commercial use. 

They’re like a pop-up store in a public parking spot. But unlike a physical store that is in a private building and pays commercial storefront taxes, these trucks don’t pay those retailer taxes.  (Each year businesses in lower ...
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September 21, 2023 Fall Al Fresco 🍂
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Fall Al Fresco 🍂
September 21, 2023
Picture this: a rustic fall table adorned with rattan-inspired serveware!

Beatriz Ball's Thanni Rattan metalware seamlessly blends rustic charm with contemporary elegance by incorporating the texture and weave of traditional Rattan caning on gold-tone accent handles set on a gleaming white surface.

Its on-trend styling and impressive scale makes the square bowl a stunning centerpiece, and a multifunctional masterpiece at your next fall gathering!

The finishes are so sturdy that ...
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July 25, 2023 Orrefors @ 125
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Orrefors @ 125
July 25, 2023
EMON MAASHO, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF ORREFORS, NORTH AMERICA, is representative of the exciting trajectory in this 125-year operation. The über-exec joined the New Wave Group in 2013, a time when Orrefors and Kosta Boda (OKB) were underperforming assets in the portfolio. "Our crystal brands are national treasures and a part of Swedish history," Maasho affirms. And he wanted a front row seat in their revitalization. Maasho was placed in charge of the new hotel and restaurant division ...
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May 29, 2023 STAY ON TREND by JULIE SMITH VINCENTI
STAY ON TREND by JULIE SMITH VINCENTI
May 29, 2023
It was October 2021, and I had just finished my first in-person trends seminar since the pandemic impacted all industry shows. At the end of the image-packed program, an audience member raised her hand and challenged, “Do trends even matter anymore?”

It was a valid question. The pandemic had disrupted business, upended supply chains, transformed education, revealed vulnerabilities, altered priorities, and unexpectedly claimed many lives. The question was tinged with cynicism. Pent...
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May 15, 2023 We Got Sole 🩴
What Crocs can teach us about gaining new customers and keeping them happy.
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We Got Sole 🩴
What Crocs can teach us about gaining new customers and keeping them happy.
May 15, 2023
About 15 years ago, I bought a pair of Crocs sandals in Myrtle Beach, SC. Not only were they hot pink, but the insole was traffic cone orange. My buddies hated them, but oddly others loved them. The sandals were affordable (maybe $20), comfortable, and a conversation starter.

According to last week’s The New York Times' profile on Crocs, I’m one of tens of millions of happy Crocs owners. This happiness is profitable:
  • Crocs’ sales have almost doubled since 2019.
...
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December 16, 2022 Set A Stunning Holiday Table ♥️
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Set A Stunning Holiday Table ♥️
December 16, 2022
The THANNI Maia Large Bowl from Beatriz Ball celebrates the festive season in rich red and gold.

Don’t the words “red and gold” conjure feelings of richness? The stunning combination of these majestic colors allow you celebrate the Holiday Season (and beyond) in festive THANNI Collection style. With sculptural shapes designed by Beatriz Ball to add “wow” to any tabletop, pieces strikingly combine a red exterior color surface with a brilliant gold interior.

The...
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November 2, 2022 Fight the Power ✊ ~ Activists and Advertisers
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Fight the Power ✊ ~ Activists and Advertisers
November 2, 2022
Last week, we talked about the power of advertising and how Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder of Red Bull, wielded it by sponsoring Mini Coopers, fringe sporting events, and Formula 1 races. Advertising makes a statement and helps people change their minds—specifically to make a purchase. There are people who do similar things in order to change society. We often call them activists. Activists and advertisers possess a similar skill set. In 1950, Ian Hamilton stole a stone slap ...
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July 6, 2022 'Dem Apps 🍎
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'Dem Apps 🍎
July 6, 2022
In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon, who plays a handsome MIT janitor moonlighting as a math savant (can one say, “Hollywood career vehicle”?), woos a young lady (played by the actress Minnie Driver) by outmaneuvering a few competing, obnoxious cads. When Damon’s character gets the girl's telephone number, he proudly shows it to the other guys and boasts, with his South Boston access, “How 'bout ‘dem apples?”  I imagine Tim Cook imitating this...
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June 20, 2022 Rescued Kennel Puppies Love Bridge 🐶
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Rescued Kennel Puppies Love Bridge 🐶
June 20, 2022
My friend works at the Swiss running shoemaker ON. She recently texted me and suggested I try their running shoes.  Three weeks later, I was handling two boxes of their Swiss engineered shoes.   On one ON shoe, there is a little Swiss flag and the words “Swiss Engineering” printed. When I get a pair of Nike’s, they don’t say "Beaverton-engineering" or "US-engineering." Nor do Adidas shoes proclaim “German engineering.”  ...
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June 13, 2022 Vista Alegre Featured in Leading Arts Magazine
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Vista Alegre Featured in Leading Arts Magazine
June 13, 2022
Vista Alegre, a Bridge partner, is featured in a recent issue of Communication Arts, a leading magazine dedicated to the commercial arts. Congrats!  View Post
February 15, 2022 Last Place...and Winning 🏁
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Last Place...and Winning 🏁
February 15, 2022
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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January 23, 2022 Jason Gets Put Under the Microscope 🔬
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Jason Gets Put Under the Microscope 🔬
January 23, 2022
Jim Collins, in his book BE 2.0, explains how purpose and mission are important to companies. To help explain this, he uses the metaphor of crossing a mountain range and seeing a star on the horizon. Your purpose is to reach the spot on the horizon below the star. The current mission is climbing up the mountain you’re on. The next mission is climbing up the next mountain and so forth in order to get closer to the spot on the horizon. You will have many missions, and may never ...
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November 25, 2019
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November 25, 2019
Sometimes we are critical of Macy's and the whole Federated chain. But perhaps we should take another look. They give us the legendary fireworks in July and the upcoming Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. But more recently they along with Tishman Speyer have taken on the incredibly complicated restoration of the old Abraham & Strauss cast-iron facade building in Brooklyn. Perhaps this Thanksgiving we should be more thankful.

From the NY Times:

New Yorkers are all too familiar with the wholesale ...
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November 17, 2019
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November 17, 2019
Amazon is increasingly using robots to deliver goods and services. One could say that Alexa is a robot minus the body. As Amazon grows, we're facing a glut of empty Main Street shops and layoffs. This reminds me of the Terminator movie series in which robots wreck destruction on human civilization.

We just need Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in an Amazon delivery commercial. "I'll be back," he says, "to pick up your return."

PS - Curious about claims on robot-killing jobs? Check out Presidential...
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April 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Tennessee Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Louisiana Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Delaware Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Pennsylvania Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
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March 2024

Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get Sales Leads in Mississippi
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get Sales Leads in Mississippi
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Shop Local Merchants Are 60% of Google Page 1 Results in South Carolina
Shop Local Merchants Are 60% of Google Page 1 Results in South Carolina
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Shop Local Merchants Are 50% of Google Page 1 Results in Georgia
Shop Local Merchants Are 50% of Google Page 1 Results in Georgia
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get More Sales Leads than Big-Box Stores Using Google
Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get More Sales Leads than Big-Box Stores Using Google
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Shop Local Retailers Rank on Page 1 of Google in 60% of States
Shop Local Retailers Rank on Page 1 of Google in 60% of States
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