There are approximately 40 online e-commerce providers. These software providers help other businesses sell online by offering them the ability to run an online store. These providers include Bridge as well as Shopify, Magento, Big Commerce, BigCartel, Square, and Weebly. Does Bridge offer a different (better?) experience than these other platforms? We believe the answer is yes. We also think our 960 retail clients agree: 99.7% of our retailers retain our service each month.
Your Bridge has a new feature: you can now choose what type of retail business you have. For example, you may choose "Kitchen store" and "Home goods store." When you pick these sectors, we'll send you customers looking for your business type. How? We help you rank higher in Google. Bridge accomplishes this by outputting this information about your business around the web. In particular, Bridge outputs these sectors on your account, on other members' accounts, and ...
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I think that Zola, an online provider of gift registries, may be harming local stores. Zola allows brides to pick things from any site, such as an indie store’s gift registry. Zola may then encourage the registrant to bypass that local store and use those gift funds with Zola. This is an issue because Zola has handled more than 650,000 registries, and its revenue is estimated to be $130m. Millions of dollars may have been diverted away from indie, brick-and-mortar stores to Zola&rsquo...
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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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Relying on file-sharing services like Dropbox to sell products often costs stores an extra $750 per brand and hurts sales
I work with 900 retailers who tell me they are drowning in a sea of Dropbox folders containing Excel files and product images. What can we do about this? First, let’s review what’s happening: When a brand wants to share products with a store, it emails the store a link from Dropbox or a similar file-sharing service. A store may receive five to ten Dropbox links...
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Bridge has added a new feature to help you more quickly boost your registry sales. Your Bridge now lets you track the software that registrants use for their event website. For example, a bride may use The Knot. When your store or the bride enters the software provider The Knot, your Bridge will tailor instructions to the registrant to add a link from The Knot leading back to your website.
We have exciting news: Retailers can now place wholesale orders via Bridge for 85 brands. If you are an authorized dealer, you can purchase from premium brands, including:
I’m seeing a disturbing trend online. Stores are not sharing news and events on their websites. Instead, they are relying on Facebook (and Instagram, which it also owns) to perform this task. That’s like a customer coming into the physical store and the store manager saying: "Want our news and events? We don’t have it here. Go to the coffee shop next door—which will be filled with our competitors pitching to you."
I’m excited to share a new, free service for our stores. Bridge is offering a wholesale ordering service where you can place wholesale orders via your Bridge account. More than 100 brands are participating.
Martin Garding, owner of Lawren's in Huntsville, shared this about Bridge's new wholesale service:
Bridge Wholesale is by far the easiest way to order from our suppliers. It cuts down on mistakes that could occur ordering through other channels. I like that the images and item ...
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I’d like to see publications across the country running stories like this.
Ps-The Times has a weekly shopping section in which it lists five products. Often the majority of items shown have a link suggesting the reader purchase the item at amazon.com. I’d like to see the Times update its reporting in this weekly article to suggest buying from indie stores.
We have made it easier to place wholesale orders. A retailer can now start the process on their e-receipt page.
In the example shown, Babcock Gifts, a retailer in Memphis, Tennessee, is viewing an order for Costa Nova product. Next to the product that was sold, Babcock Gifts is shown a link "Place Wholesale Order." When it clicks this, it is taken to the brand's website and to the specific product. Our software automatically logs the retailer in. The retailer...
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Amazon Prime, Grindr, and Instagram do not seem to have much in common with each other. But, a recent study by PCloud found that these apps are some of the biggest 'data burglars': they are downloading our data at an alarming rate.
Many brands and retailers in our industry promote Facebook, yet Facebook and its sister company Instagram are the leading thieves of personal data. It’s akin to them suggesting their friend sit next to a digital pick pocket.