News from Bridge
Bridge in the News
December 2016
HFN Magazine: $2 Million Milestone
HFN shares that Bridge has doubled year-over-year sales processed for clients.
November 2015
HFN Magazine: $1 Million Milestone
HFN highlights Bridge's handling of $1 million in online gift registry sales in 2015.
May 2015
HFN Magazine: E-commerce Update
Allison Zisko interviews Jason Solarek about Bridge's new services.
December 2016
HFN Magazine: $2 Million Milestone
HFN shares that Bridge has doubled year-over-year sales processed for clients.
November 2015
HFN Magazine: $1 Million Milestone
HFN highlights Bridge's handling of $1 million in online gift registry sales in 2015.
May 2015
HFN Magazine: E-commerce Update
Allison Zisko interviews Jason Solarek about Bridge's new services.
Tuesday, November 19
Market buildings are looking down the barrel of a gun. To find out why, check out my article in this month's Tableware Today.
THE LAST WORD
CHART YOUR FUTURE BEFORE BIG TECH DOES
by JASON SOLAREK
Market buildings are starting to take digital seriously. Why, finally? Because Amazon is nipping at retailers’ heels? No. Because Zola is stealing indie stores’ registry business? No. Sadly, the main thing that’s brought markets up to speed has to do with their own dollars and cents. Faire – a startup ... ...
Read More
Market buildings are looking down the barrel of a gun. To find out why, check out my article in this month's Tableware Today.
THE LAST WORD
CHART YOUR FUTURE BEFORE BIG TECH DOES
by JASON SOLAREK
Market buildings are starting to take digital seriously. Why, finally? Because Amazon is nipping at retailers’ heels? No. Because Zola is stealing indie stores’ registry business? No. Sadly, the main thing that’s brought markets up to speed has to do with their own dollars and cents. Faire – a startup ... ...
Read More
Tuesday, November 19
This article shares points with which we agree: running a website and digital strategy is very expensive yet crucial for one's success. Due to these factors, large companies are often the ones growing because they can better absorb these staffing and software costs.
View Post
This article shares points with which we agree: running a website and digital strategy is very expensive yet crucial for one's success. Due to these factors, large companies are often the ones growing because they can better absorb these staffing and software costs.
View Post
Tuesday, November 19
Retailers can be separated in to two groups: those whose are making smart choices like Walmart and Best Buy, and those who are not like Macy’s and Nordstrom. Macy’s stock is down 44% this year.
View Post
Retailers can be separated in to two groups: those whose are making smart choices like Walmart and Best Buy, and those who are not like Macy’s and Nordstrom. Macy’s stock is down 44% this year.
View Post
Tuesday, November 19
Does Bridge help store owners live longer? For example, do we help Brooks Terry live longer? Store owner Susan Hoechner? The answer is yes, and I'll explain.
Bridge helps Susan and Brooks save months of time via the Smart Products service. This can be viewed as time saved--or more importantly: as an extension of their lives. As a reference, Scott Galloway, an NYU professor and media savant, recently made this insight regarding life-extending services:
"Walmart Delivery Unlimited: At $98/year,... ...
Read More
Does Bridge help store owners live longer? For example, do we help Brooks Terry live longer? Store owner Susan Hoechner? The answer is yes, and I'll explain.
Bridge helps Susan and Brooks save months of time via the Smart Products service. This can be viewed as time saved--or more importantly: as an extension of their lives. As a reference, Scott Galloway, an NYU professor and media savant, recently made this insight regarding life-extending services:
"Walmart Delivery Unlimited: At $98/year,... ...
Read More
Sunday, November 17
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... ...
Read More
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... ...
Read More
Saturday, November 16
Facebook removed 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September, more than twice as many as last year, shares CNBC.
One may ask: how many fake Facebook accounts still exist?
Many social media platforms are full of fake users and scammers.
Bridge only allows real people to sign up for its platform. We assess each sign up and only allow authenticated businesses and their staff to join. Since we don't rely on advertising revenue, we don't need to allow fake accounts to inflate our user base. ... ...
Read More
Facebook removed 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September, more than twice as many as last year, shares CNBC.
One may ask: how many fake Facebook accounts still exist?
Many social media platforms are full of fake users and scammers.
Bridge only allows real people to sign up for its platform. We assess each sign up and only allow authenticated businesses and their staff to join. Since we don't rely on advertising revenue, we don't need to allow fake accounts to inflate our user base. ... ...
Read More
Saturday, November 16
For Brands
Does your website have an inspiration section? You should according to a Gartner survey of shoppers. Thirty-seven percent of shoppers visit a brand's site to get inspiration (aka they don't know exactly what product they want), and sadly less than half of brand sites (38%) offer inspirational content.
What can you do? Add a web page dedicated to lifestyle pictures and what's new. Show the bigger picture in which your products are being used and loved.
Read the article from Gartner:
... ...
Read More
For Brands
Does your website have an inspiration section? You should according to a Gartner survey of shoppers. Thirty-seven percent of shoppers visit a brand's site to get inspiration (aka they don't know exactly what product they want), and sadly less than half of brand sites (38%) offer inspirational content.
What can you do? Add a web page dedicated to lifestyle pictures and what's new. Show the bigger picture in which your products are being used and loved.
Read the article from Gartner:
... ...
Read More
Saturday, November 16
When we make products overseas, are we long-term weakening our businesses and our communities, and in fact strengthening the product’s country of origin? Today’s WSJ makes the point that foreign countries that produce the goods are the ones gaining high-tech jobs and therefore the high-flying lifestyles. As you may have heard, every day a new person becomes a millionaire in China. Can we say the same in America? Historically, businesses and economists approved the strategy of “innovate here, ... ...
Read More
When we make products overseas, are we long-term weakening our businesses and our communities, and in fact strengthening the product’s country of origin? Today’s WSJ makes the point that foreign countries that produce the goods are the ones gaining high-tech jobs and therefore the high-flying lifestyles. As you may have heard, every day a new person becomes a millionaire in China. Can we say the same in America? Historically, businesses and economists approved the strategy of “innovate here, ... ...
Read More
Tuesday, November 19 - Thursday, November 21
Webinar
Is your website ready for the holiday season? Amazon is ready. Target is ready. Neiman Marcus is ready.
Let's get your website ready. You're invited to a new, free webinar:
Holiday Preparation Webinar
Please choose your time:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 10 am EST
or
Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 10 am EST
I'll show you how to:
+ Prepare your website for the holidays.
+ Update important settings.
+ Get the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
I'll be presenting and look forward to your questions... ...
Read More
Webinar
Is your website ready for the holiday season? Amazon is ready. Target is ready. Neiman Marcus is ready.
Let's get your website ready. You're invited to a new, free webinar:
Holiday Preparation Webinar
Please choose your time:
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 10 am EST
or
Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 10 am EST
I'll show you how to:
+ Prepare your website for the holidays.
+ Update important settings.
+ Get the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
I'll be presenting and look forward to your questions... ...
Read More
Friday, November 15
New E-mail Scam Targeting Invoices and ACH Payments
There is a new scam where hackers take over a brand’s email account and request payment via ACH. This financial scam recently happened to a brand that we know. Please note: Bridge has not been a victim of this scam. We are warning businesses to ensure it does not happen to our friends.
Here is how the scam works:
1. A hacker takes control of an employee’s email account such as their Microsoft email user ID and password. This is likely done via a... ...
Read More
New E-mail Scam Targeting Invoices and ACH Payments
There is a new scam where hackers take over a brand’s email account and request payment via ACH. This financial scam recently happened to a brand that we know. Please note: Bridge has not been a victim of this scam. We are warning businesses to ensure it does not happen to our friends.
Here is how the scam works:
1. A hacker takes control of an employee’s email account such as their Microsoft email user ID and password. This is likely done via a... ...
Read More
Thursday, November 14
How can you promote your store's gift registry?
Take some inspiration from The Flower Shop in Auburn, Alabama. The florists and gift shop sent their clients an attractive email announcing their Bridge Registry.
By using Bridge, The Flower Shop was able to quickly create an online store with a gift registry--and have it filled with 13,000 products. Their Bridge Store was instantly populated with 4,500 Herend products, 1,800 Vietri products, 400 Arte Italica products, and 300 Annieglass products. ... ...
Read More
How can you promote your store's gift registry?
Take some inspiration from The Flower Shop in Auburn, Alabama. The florists and gift shop sent their clients an attractive email announcing their Bridge Registry.
By using Bridge, The Flower Shop was able to quickly create an online store with a gift registry--and have it filled with 13,000 products. Their Bridge Store was instantly populated with 4,500 Herend products, 1,800 Vietri products, 400 Arte Italica products, and 300 Annieglass products. ... ...
Read More
Tuesday, November 12
Amazon has opened an instant portal between our kids and Chinese goods that fail U.S. safety and environmental standards. Today's Wall St. Journal shares that Amazon is helping Chinese sellers upload a new item every 1/50th of a second—resulting in a tsunami of questionable products flooding our homes.
Excessive lead in your kid’s dinner plate? A motorcycle helmet for your son that cracks easily? Get it on Amazon.
One may ask: how could a Chinese-speaking person be expected to know U.S. laws? ... ...
Read More
Amazon has opened an instant portal between our kids and Chinese goods that fail U.S. safety and environmental standards. Today's Wall St. Journal shares that Amazon is helping Chinese sellers upload a new item every 1/50th of a second—resulting in a tsunami of questionable products flooding our homes.
Excessive lead in your kid’s dinner plate? A motorcycle helmet for your son that cracks easily? Get it on Amazon.
One may ask: how could a Chinese-speaking person be expected to know U.S. laws? ... ...
Read More
Sunday, November 10
Barneys Commits Retail Manslaughter
Barneys will likely keep thousands of dollars belonging to brides, shares today’s Times. The defunct retailer will keeps the brides’ registry credits if they don’t redeem them by this Thursday.
This is also bad for the brands that were sold via Barneys' registries. For example, let's imagine Barneys sells Waterford. If a bride registered for a Waterford product, and that item was gifted by a family member, Waterford would expect that item to be bought by ... ...
Read More
Barneys Commits Retail Manslaughter
Barneys will likely keep thousands of dollars belonging to brides, shares today’s Times. The defunct retailer will keeps the brides’ registry credits if they don’t redeem them by this Thursday.
This is also bad for the brands that were sold via Barneys' registries. For example, let's imagine Barneys sells Waterford. If a bride registered for a Waterford product, and that item was gifted by a family member, Waterford would expect that item to be bought by ... ...
Read More
Friday, November 8
Share Files More Easily
Your Bridge now helps you share files more easily. You can easily load PDFs, Excel files, price lists, and more via your Bridge Library. Your business friends will see your files on their Dashboard, as well as in their respective Library.
In the example shown, Babcock Gifts, the premier gift shop of Tennessee, can view files from Mary Jurek, DeVine Corporation, Badash, Casafina, and BIA Cordon Bleu.
When viewing a file on the Dashboard, you can like it, save it, or download ... ...
Read More
Share Files More Easily
Your Bridge now helps you share files more easily. You can easily load PDFs, Excel files, price lists, and more via your Bridge Library. Your business friends will see your files on their Dashboard, as well as in their respective Library.
In the example shown, Babcock Gifts, the premier gift shop of Tennessee, can view files from Mary Jurek, DeVine Corporation, Badash, Casafina, and BIA Cordon Bleu.
When viewing a file on the Dashboard, you can like it, save it, or download ... ...
Read More
Friday, November 8
From 2,000 stores to 182 stores—that’s how much Sears, the storied retailer that also owns Kmart, has shrunk in just 5 years. That’s a reduction of 90%.
Remember when people said the retail apocalypse was over-rated, or over? With the currents affecting Nordstrom, Neimans, Barneys, and Macy’s, I believe that we’re still in the midst of the storm. And, even after these other retailers close, the remaining ones will have to spend $1.50 for every $1 they take in to compete against Amazon. So, will... ...
Read More
From 2,000 stores to 182 stores—that’s how much Sears, the storied retailer that also owns Kmart, has shrunk in just 5 years. That’s a reduction of 90%.
Remember when people said the retail apocalypse was over-rated, or over? With the currents affecting Nordstrom, Neimans, Barneys, and Macy’s, I believe that we’re still in the midst of the storm. And, even after these other retailers close, the remaining ones will have to spend $1.50 for every $1 they take in to compete against Amazon. So, will... ...
Read More
Thursday, November 7
Why is retail changing?
Retail Dive gives us six reasons via six statistics:
1. 100 stores
The number of Macy's locations closed since August 2016, as well as the number of stores that off-price retailer Ross opened in 2019 alone
2. $19 billion
Projected off-price sales by 2021
3. $20.4 billion
The amount department store sales have dropped over the past five years
4. $14 billion
The amount in sales that Costco's Kirkland Signature private label outpaced all of Macy's nationwide sales last year
5. 3.1%
The... ...
Read More
Why is retail changing?
Retail Dive gives us six reasons via six statistics:
1. 100 stores
The number of Macy's locations closed since August 2016, as well as the number of stores that off-price retailer Ross opened in 2019 alone
2. $19 billion
Projected off-price sales by 2021
3. $20.4 billion
The amount department store sales have dropped over the past five years
4. $14 billion
The amount in sales that Costco's Kirkland Signature private label outpaced all of Macy's nationwide sales last year
5. 3.1%
The... ...
Read More
November 5
November 5
FOR BRANDS
Good news: Bridge will pay10% of your advertising costs.
For example, if you pay $1,000 for a Tableware Today ad, we’ll give you $100. If you pay $2,000, we’ll give you $200.
Benefits:
+ Save money. Make your advertising budget go further.
+ Sell more. When retailers join you on Bridge, they report selling 13% more product.
+ Show more of your product on your retailers' websites.
Shown here are two examples:
+ Waterford print ad in Tableware Today.
+ Badash print ad in Tableware Today.
... ...
Read More
FOR BRANDS
Good news: Bridge will pay10% of your advertising costs.
For example, if you pay $1,000 for a Tableware Today ad, we’ll give you $100. If you pay $2,000, we’ll give you $200.
Benefits:
+ Save money. Make your advertising budget go further.
+ Sell more. When retailers join you on Bridge, they report selling 13% more product.
+ Show more of your product on your retailers' websites.
Shown here are two examples:
+ Waterford print ad in Tableware Today.
+ Badash print ad in Tableware Today.
... ...
Read More
Monday, November 4
Wayfair had about 4 buyers visiting 41 Madison showrooms last week. While the building and showrooms love buyers, I'd suggest some caution with Wayfair since it’s hemorrhaging money.
Check out the attached graph.
Read more about Wayfair and its financial position here:
https://www.retaildive.com/news/wayfairs-net-loss-widens-nearly-80/566324/
View Post
Wayfair had about 4 buyers visiting 41 Madison showrooms last week. While the building and showrooms love buyers, I'd suggest some caution with Wayfair since it’s hemorrhaging money.
Check out the attached graph.
Read more about Wayfair and its financial position here:
https://www.retaildive.com/news/wayfairs-net-loss-widens-nearly-80/566324/
View Post
Sunday, November 3
Happy to see Anna Weatherley and Deshoulieres in this weekend’s Wall St. Journal.
View Post
Happy to see Anna Weatherley and Deshoulieres in this weekend’s Wall St. Journal.
View Post
Saturday, November 2
Amazon is Winning Because of: Bots
Amazon most likely has lower prices than most stores--including yours, shares Retail Dive.
Excerpt:
"With the holiday sales season underway, Amazon is pricing 20% below other online retailers on average in key product categories, according to a study by Profitero."
You may ask, how is Amazon wining this online price war? I'll share my answer: Bots. Amazon has unleashed an army of bots to crawl and scrub all of your data and websites, and report it back to Amazon ... ...
Read More
Amazon is Winning Because of: Bots
Amazon most likely has lower prices than most stores--including yours, shares Retail Dive.
Excerpt:
"With the holiday sales season underway, Amazon is pricing 20% below other online retailers on average in key product categories, according to a study by Profitero."
You may ask, how is Amazon wining this online price war? I'll share my answer: Bots. Amazon has unleashed an army of bots to crawl and scrub all of your data and websites, and report it back to Amazon ... ...
Read More
Bridge in the News
December 2016
HFN Magazine: $2 Million Milestone
HFN shares that Bridge has doubled year-over-year sales processed for clients.
November 2015
HFN Magazine: $1 Million Milestone
HFN highlights Bridge's handling of $1 million in online gift registry sales in 2015.
May 2015
HFN Magazine: E-commerce Update
Allison Zisko interviews Jason Solarek about Bridge's new services.
December 2016
HFN Magazine: $2 Million Milestone
HFN shares that Bridge has doubled year-over-year sales processed for clients.
November 2015
HFN Magazine: $1 Million Milestone
HFN highlights Bridge's handling of $1 million in online gift registry sales in 2015.
May 2015
HFN Magazine: E-commerce Update
Allison Zisko interviews Jason Solarek about Bridge's new services.