When I was a kid, my mom instilled in me a lesson to always get paid for my work. When I went to mow a lawn or do my newspaper route, she’d remind me, “Be sure you get paid.” As an adult, these flashbacks are vivid like a scene from Citizen Kane—just swap out the Rosebud sled with my newspaper delivery bike. Today, this lesson still resonates when running Bridge. When calling a store that hasn’t paid its Bridge bill, I’m confident in asking ...
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When is the last time you received a Starbucks gift card? I’ve received them as holiday gifts, and I’ve given them to sales reps as thank you gifts. Starbucks gift cards, like their shops, are ubiquitous. They are almost as popular as gift cards from our nemesis: Amazon.com. Just about every month, a company offers me an Amazon gift card if I sign up for a service. WBGO, the local, Newark-based, non-profit radio station known for jazz, recently offered me an Amazon gift ...
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Your Bridge has a new feature. You can now more easily manage your gift registry bonuses.
Background:
Your Bridge Store's Gift Registry software has a marketing program built in. This program gives registrants (e.g. brides) a monetary bonus if they complete five steps. Previously, when registrants reported that they added a link on their social media page, a store would have to ask the registrant on which platform they added the link. The same process occurred when the registrant reported ...
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Botanic Garden, a pattern from the brand Portmeirion, is celebrating its 50th anniversary shares Tableware Today magazine. The pattern, which is based on an 1817 herbal book’s illustrations, was unconventional at the time because it came in unmatching sets. Store buyers feared it wouldn’t sell. Fifty years later, the pattern has sold more than $1b and accounts for about half of Portmeirion’s sales. The company’s daughter created the pattern after ...
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In this e-commerce age, a store being found on page 1 of Google is very important. Online advertising has become much more expensive recently, making being found even more important. Being found in Google saves the store on costly advertising.
Sometimes a potential client asks me if their store uses Bridge Store software, will their store rank higher in Google? The answer: Yes. In this example, we Googled "gift registry texas." We see that Bridge retailers claimed ...
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Bridge helps 1,000 indie stores offer gift registries. We've handled 70,000 registries. One trend we've noticed over the year is The Knot, a leading wedding website provider, is minimizing sales opportunities for indie stores. The Knot has created partnerships with big-box players, including Crate & Barrel, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, and Amazon, and relegated the indie stores to the bottom of the bride's page.
In this example, we see the indie stores displayed at the very bottom ...
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Bridge has teamed up with 23 premium brands to offer an exciting promotion. A retailer can place an order at the Atlanta show and get $200 off its wholesale order. The store will receive a free Bridge account. The account will contain the products the store ordered. With this solution, a store can quickly promote and sell what it just bought at the show. The store's Bridge account will also contain other products that the brand offers. With this approach, the stores can quickly...
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Bridge has teamed up with four brands to offer an exciting promotion. Stores can place an order at the Dallas or Atlanta shows and get $200 off their wholesale order. The store will receive a free Bridge account. The account will contain the products the store ordered. With this solution, a store can quickly promote and sell what it just bought at the show. The Bridge account will also contain other products that the brand offers. With this approach, the stores...
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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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Bridge has added a new feature to your store's wedding registry service. We have added checklists to each registry.
These checklists will help your store:
Save time.
Sell more gifts.
Make customers happier.
Details
Bridge has given each of your wedding registries two checklists:
Your store receives an internal, private checklist for each registry. The registrant can’t access this.
The registrant receives their own checklist. You can also
142 of our retailers are using a sales program called Bridge. A store uses Bridge to more easily sell our products. I think Bridge would be a good fit for your business, too. I’m writing to invite you to join us on Bridge.
Bonus: Join us on Bridge by next Friday, May 6th, and Skyros Designs will give you a $200 shopping credit with us.
Retailers that use Bridge report selling 18% more. In fact, our best ...
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We are pleased to participate in a promotion with Casafina Living. Please find the letter that Matt Hullfish, National Sales Director, shared with his retailers below.
Thank you,
Jason
..............
Dear Friends and Family of Casafina,
272 of our retailers are using a sales program called Bridge. A store uses Bridge to more easily sell our products. I think Bridge would be a good fit for your business, too. I’m writing to invite you to join us on Bridge.
...
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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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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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