You can determine the quality of a shopping platform by looking at reviews from customers who have used it. Below are excerpts from three reviews from shoppers who bought a gift using our software:
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"I wanted to take care of this online and the website was easy to navigate…always a plus!"
~ Jerri Ann Fitts in TX
Ms. Fitts made a purchase at The Ivy House, an indie retailer in Texas that has used our e-commerce software since 2015.
How to determine which collections are top sellers.
October 10, 2023
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: we've made it easier to quickly identify best-selling collections.
A new green "Best Seller" banner indicates which collections are top sellers.
In the example shown, we see the Results page for a Beatriz Ball collection listed on The Ivy House's site. At the top of the page, we see the green "Best Seller" banner, signifying that the Vento collection is a top seller.
What universal standards can teach us about simplicity regarding e-commerce platforms.
September 25, 2023
When Apple launched its new iPhones this month, one of its most noteworthy updates was replacing its Lightning charging cable with a USB-C. This was not a voluntary move or extension of Steve Jobs’s love of simplicity. Apple changed it because the European Union required them to, according to Ben Cohen in The Wall St. Journal. Now, just about every mobile phone in the world (forget just little ol’ Europe) will have one charging solution (USB-C).
What the retail industry can learn from Google and Amazon teaming up on technology standards.
September 19, 2023
Google, Amazon, and an array of home appliance companies are teaming up to make it easier for you to dim your home’s lights and lock your front doors. They are adopting a standard called Matter that allows devices to communicate and work together, shares The Wall St. Journal. This allows a giant like Amazon, creator of Alexa devices and Ring doorbells, and Tuo, a small home device tech creator, to use the same platform yet keep their internal, proprietary code base. This standard is like a...
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H Mercantile, an indie store in Louisiana, signed up last week for a free account.
The store owner heard about the service from their Ivystone sales rep and signed up online.
In just a few minutes, the store used the Brand Syncing Service to Sync with Casafina. It instantly had data for 955 products to create an online store and gift registry filled for free.
The owner saved $1,000+ in labor on adding products to a website.
We were happy to see our partner Vietri in this month’s Garden & Gun magazine.
Vietri, a premium designer of Italian home goods, ran a pretty advertisement in this month’s issue. The ad features 15 dealers throughout the South where one can buy Vietri.
Of the 15 stores listed, 47% (7 stores) use Shop Local's Store to more easily sell Vietri.
A pleasure to tour the updated The Ivy House store in Dallas. Laura May, the owner, took me for a tour of her ode to fine china. I learned that her shop is named after Josiah Wedgwood’s home in England.
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Check out the verdant Ivy collection, an expansive assortment of ring holders and boxes, and gold-hued options for fan favorite patterns Eleanor and Flora. Raise a glass to our new flute and stemware sets. We have what you need, and it's in stock now.
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How big data, filters, and search engines can help us create a better experience for our members.
May 26, 2023
Apple announced last month that it's launching a new classical music app. What’s novel about the Apple Music Classical app is how it lets music fans more easily search thousands of variations of the same song. For example, let’s say you want to find a Johann Sebastian Bach song. Over the past 300 years, many musicians have done ‘covers’ of his works, and there are variations by conductor, music, year, etc., thereby producing thousands of variations. Existing software ...
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A medium coffee at McDonald’s is $1.99. When a brand syncs with a retailer on Shop Local, it costs the brand $1.40 per month.
For $1.40, we do these seven things for our brand partner:
We sync an unlimited number of the brand’s products to the retailer's Shop Local Store. All updates, including price changes and new introduction launches, happen in real time. The retailer never has to click “download”
Before May 31, 2023, send an email to your retailers inviting them to join you on Shop Local's e-commerce platform. We’ve written for you a sample email template you can send to them. Please find that template below. You can copy this template and send it using your email program (Outlook, MailChimp, etc.).
When you send your email, please BCC [email protected] or forward it after you send it.
How to save time when accessing popular product-related services and pages.
March 27, 2023
Your Online Store has a new feature: We've made it easier to access important product-related services and content. This feature reduces the number of clicks needed to perform actions and access pages.
In the Master Bar of your Store, there is now a Products icon. This icon’s drop down includes many of the popular product-related services your business likely uses. Previously, you would need to visit the Management home page to view many of these links.
How to navigate between images for products on a registry list.
March 1, 2023
Your Bridge Shop Local Store has an updated feature: it's now easier to view products' images and browse to other related images on a registry list.
In the example shown, we see a registry list at The Ivy House, a fine china store in Dallas. In the product image thumbnail, we can see the number of pictures that correspond to the product. At the top-right of the image thumbnail, one can click the enlarge icon to open the product image modal.
In the product image modal, we can see the new ...
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I'm giving you a $200 finder's fee when you refer a store.
When you refer a store, the store will receive $268. It will receive $100 towards a wholesale order with your brand and a $168 credit towards their registry service with us. (My company is paying the $100 wholesale order credit.)
This offer is good through May 1, 2023.
Summary: you give a store $268 and you get $200. (Bridge ...
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How to encourage registry customers to purchase from a registry by sharing previous gift givers' names
February 16, 2023
Your Bridge Store has an updated feature to encourage customers to complete a registry purchase. Your Bridge Store displays gift givers' names on a registry's list.
Previously, the gift givers' names were only displayed by rolling over "Purchases" at the top of a registry list.
Now, the gift givers are also displayed in a box at the footer of a registry's list.
In the example shown, we see a registry list at The Ivy House, a fine china store in Dallas. At the ...
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How integrating a messaging service into our e-commerce platform can help us acquire new customers.
January 31, 2023
It takes a lot of people to build a bridge, but just two to tango. This applies to the analog world as well as the digital one. In the digital space, I'm using tango to refer to messaging between two people. I believe messaging is a service we can add to our offering to diversify how our company Shop Local grows.
Different Networks Require a Different Number of Users in a Group
Andrew Chen in The Cold Start Problem states that a key difference among network models is the required minimum ...
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Our retailers recently told us that customers are calling and asking about non-existent brides, and brides are asking about non-existent registry gift lists (e.g. wedding registry lists, baby lists).
We investigated the issues and below is what we found.
What is Happening:
We found that many of these purchases are coming from registrants that open a ‘universal registry’ on websites such as Zola or MyRegistry. These universal registry services allow the registrant to add ...
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Our retailers recently told us that they were confused by strange registry orders. The stores are receiving gift registry orders on their sites but the retailer does not have a registry for the gift recipient at its store. Customers are calling and asking about non-existent brides, and brides are asking about non-existent registry gift lists (e.g. wedding registry lists, baby lists).
We investigated the issues and below is what we found.
What is Happening:
We found that many of...
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