In the early 2000s, the board game Cranium became a hit. The game combined elements of Scrabble and Pictionary with the goal of helping more people enjoy playing a game. Richard Tait, who created Cranium and sold it to Hasbro in 2008 for $77.5m, passed away in July. Like Mr. Tait, I had been a paperboy, but he went beyond what I ever offered: he came up with a new service that sold breakfast sandwiches along his newspaper route. He increased profits and made customers happier. ...
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Last week, Amazon bought iRobot, the company that makes Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner, for $1.7b. Why? Yes, their 'Rosie from the Jetsons' has AI and is in your home (which is where Amazon wants to be), but the reason Amazon wants it is because customers want it. Which leads us to ask: Why do customers want Roomba? Because it does something that humans find annoying and hate doing: cleaning. Roomba has spotted the value that robots bring to the world and it's not simply being ...
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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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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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In the past, we’ve used spin classes and gyms as inspiration for Bridge. We see them as metaphors for helping retail business owners. The founders of SoulCycle, Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, must have been eavesdropping on us: they are expanding their spinning approach to another sphere. The Times reports they have started Peoplehood, a business that seeks to help people via self-help (group-help?) sessions. It’s SoulCycle for the soul&...
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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
At my local postal shop, which doubles as a surprise book purveyor and emergency greeting card supplier, I picked up this guide by Monocle, a magazine and book publisher, about indie shops. The book, ‘The Monocle Guide to Shops, Kiosks, and Markets,’ has an appreciation for brick-and-mortar retail that mirrors our ethos here at Bridge. Local shops bring people together and support communities unlike online-only marketplaces. We encourage citizens to ‘unplug’ and browse ...
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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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We are glad that Bugatti starts with the Bridge Catalog at such a great time like the Holidays. We hope you all are having the best time with your loved ones π²βοΈβ¨π
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In the book Great by Choice, Jim Collins posits that processes are key to an organization's success. As an example, he cites John Wooden, the NCAA championship-winning UCLA basketball coach, who trained athletes on processes that included everything from shooting to tying one’s shoelaces. In practicing, a player may perfect their shoelace tying and do thousands of repetitive free-throw shots. When we watch a game from the nosebleed seats like me (...what can I say, I’m ...
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"Are you happy?” That’s a question you may ask yourself. Your parents and friends also likely inquire (I hope!). While it may seem flaky to say, happiness is important. This topic was the subject of Dr. Edward Diener, who passed away in April of this year. Dr. Diener, who studied happiness and earned the moniker “Dr. Happiness,” reported that happiness often correlates with social relationships, being with others, and not being alone.
All of Baobab's candles are hand-poured in Belgium into glass that was hand-blown by master craftsmen in Poland, making each one completely unique. Click here to shop for Baobab on this website.
These magnificent objects of decoration are inspired by faraway places and wild nature, with the brand’s iconic perfumes. In a transparent hand-blown glass with black details, the pictured Black Pearls scented candle is as precious as the black pearls from which it draws its name. The Black...
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Companies with deep pockets and big connections to Wall St. have teamed up to make the Internet a dirtier place. Legislation is pending to make large sellers of new goods have to reveal the true seller of the good. The goal of the federal bill is to curtail the sale of fake and stolen goods through online marketplaces. This sounds logical. But not to: eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and Etsy.
These businesses have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake from banks, investors, and rich people. They ...
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Come to Alioto’s to receive the personal attention and experience that you cannot get at the big box stores. We can assist you with your decision-making process for all the items you want to register for, from fine china and crystal to casual dinnerware and glasses, sterling silver placesettings to everyday silverware, frames, bar ware, home decor, and the list goes on. If you want it and it is available, we will find it for you!
See some reviews from brides:
“Sera and her ...
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Yiren Lu shares her experience of setting up a Shopify store in the New York Times magazine. Ms. Lu reports the setup process was easy, but her online Shopify store failed because it lacked marketing, aka eyeballs and orders. In her next article, I hope Ms. Lu tries Bridge. Bridge Store helps members fill the marketing component that Shopify is missing. When a store joins Bridge, Bridge instantly points hundreds of links to the store from other Bridge members, which Google sees and ...
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While waiting for breakfast, I noticed this ‘Boycott Amazon’ sticker. I think that getting customers to stop something—or start something—is a tough practice. There are fields of science (psychology) and marketing (branding) dedicated to this. Is it easier to get someone to start or stop (boycott) something?
I think that offering a solution (start something) is easier.
I recommend that stores encourage customers to choose them over Amazon because the ...
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Good news: Bridge is helping your business make more sales and stop Amazon's growth. The reason: your Bridge team has gone to great lengths to ensure your Bridge software loads very quickly for your shoppers. A report shares that 41% of shoppers jump to Amazon when a site is slow. The report shares that the fastest site tested loaded in 2.2 seconds and the slowest was 43.9 seconds. Bridge's sites often load within 2 to 3 seconds, which places your Bridge Store at the front of the pack in ...
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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.
From Christmas presents to wedding presents, you can't go wrong with Waterford.
These are the items that I have used time and time again.
Waterford Water Pitcher- Great for refilling water glasses and also looks great on the bar with orange juice for mimosas!
Waterford Cake Plate. It is perfect for small cakes (I have to admit that I am not a baker, they are mostly from Publix) I have used it many times as a lift for a tablescape and also on my vanity to hold perfumes and lotions....
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