Pricing/Cost

How much does Bridge cost?
Plans start at $0 a month. View plans & pricing here

Setup

Is there a setup fee?
No. You can start using the store and registry for free.

Do you have to host the Bridge software on your own 3rd-party server?
No. You can start using the store and registry immediately upon signing upon. You do not need to host the software. Many other e-commerce platforms require you to download their files and then host them via a hosting company.

Do you have to install any software on your computer to use Bridge?
No. You can start using the store and registry immediately upon signing upon. You do not need to install any software on your local computer.

Design

What will your Bridge Store look like?
You control the look of your website. You can use your own website or our self-updating store ~ View examples.

Products

Can you add your own items (non-Smart Products) to a Bridge Store?
Yes. You can add any item from any brand. The item added does not have to be from a Smart Brand to be added to the online store or the gift registry.

Smart Products

Can a customer buy any Smart Product online?
Yes. By default, when you sync products with a Smart Brand, all of its products appear in your Bridge Store. Bridge Store uses a 'price floor' feature to save you from having to take orders that result in little profit. By default, this price floor feature works by only allowing Smart Products with a retail price above $50 to be purchased online. When a shopper views products below this price floor, they are shown your phone number and encouraged to call to order the item. You can change this price floor to the dollar amount that you'd like, even to $0 if you wish. Note: gift registry items do not use this price floor feature. This reason for this is that most gift registry purchases are given in the form of a gift card.

Can a retailer just sign up for the Bridge Store & Registry and not the Smart Products service?
Yes.

» View more FAQs about Smart Products

Domain and Access

Can you use your own domain name?
Yes. If you choose to use a Bridge Store, your URL/domain name by default will be: [yourstorename].bridgecatalog.com. If you wish, you can mask the 'bridgecatalog' part of the URL and have your domain simply be: [yourstorename].com. If this interests you, please request domain masking for your account.

Gift & Bridal Registry

Does Bridge offer bridal & gift registry software?
Yes. Bridge Store comes with an online gift registry.

How do you activate your registry service?
Your Bridge store comes with a free bridal registry store. No extra steps are needed to add it as a service to your Bridge Store.

How do you add a registry?

1. Click on the "Gift Registry" link in the horizontal navigation near the top of your page.
2. On the Gift Registry home page, click on the green "Start a new registry" button.
3. Complete the information requested. Click "Submit".

How do you add items to a registry?
First, be sure you have created the registry to which you wish to add items.

1. Browse to the item you wish to add to the registry. For example, you may roll over "Brands," then click on "Waterford."
2. From the Waterford page, click the item you wish to add to the registry. Next to the item, there is an "Add to your registry" button. Click that. (View example on a retailer's site here.) That will add the item to the registry you created.

Will items automatically be shown as purchased after they're purchased?
Yes. The site updates itself after each purchase. You can also manually make updates to the quantity desired and purchased to reflect in-store purchases.

Orders

How do you get paid?
You can choose to accept or not accept credit card payments online.

1. By default, there is no credit card processing setup on your Bridge store. The reason for this is that Bridge does not know your bank account number to deposit funds, your store may wish to not accept credit cards online ,or you may wish to take payment via another format. At any time, you can choose to activate real time credit card processing. (See step 2 below).
   
   When you do not accept credit cards online, customers can still 'checkout' on your Bridge store. They will enter their billing information, shipping information, telephone number, and email. If the purchase is for a gift registry, the order email your store receives will give you all of this customer information. You will call the customer and collect his/her credit card information over the telephone. You will then key that in to your in-store terminal.
2. Bridge can setup real-time credit card processing in your Bridge checkout. With this feature, customers enter their credit card information in your checkout just as if they are Macys.com or Bloomingdales.com. When the customer checks out, their money will start the process to move to your bank account. Normally, the money is in your account the next business day. With this feature, you do not have to call the customer after the purchase. With this solution, you will still receive an email with all the order details (shipping information, etc.)

Do you fulfill the order or is it drop shipped from the brand (vendor/manufacturer)?
You choose. If you have the item in stock, you will ship it. If you do not, you'll likely wish to have it drop shipped. (Please note: a few brands do not drop ship directly to the customer.) If you do not want to have the item drop shipped, the item ordered will be shipped to your store, then you may ship it to the customer.

What if your store doesn't want to drop ship items?
You can set your Bridge Store to just allow customers to browse items. If you choose this option, we'll replace the 'Add to shopping bag' button with your telephone number. In this way, you are assured that customers can't order items that you don't stock; they will have to call to place the order.

How do you get notified of an order?
You receive the order notification via email. The email will contain the customer's billing information, shipping information, and the items he or she ordered. Your orders will also be stored online in your Order system.

How does Bridge work with my POS?
You keep your existing POS. Retailers that use Bridge use POS systems such as RetailPro, Lightspeed, and others. When dealing with registries, you can use just Bridge's software to manage the registries. You do not need to use the your existing POS's registry software and Bridge. When a registry order comes thru via Bridge, you will either take the item out of inventory or give a registry credit to the bride. If you take the item out of inventory, you will enter the web order as a 'web order' in your POS system. While you don't have to enter the order in your POS, doing so may help you keep all orders in one place and help you run sales reports. If you give a registry credit, you do not have to enter the order in your POS. the order will exist as credit until the gift credit is converted to an item, at which point you'll process the order in your POS as a 'web order' or a gift card redemption.

How do I manage inventory with Bridge?
How you manage inventory with Bridge depends on what type of order you make via Bridge.

1. Gift registry purchase. Most purchases made via Bridge are gift registry purchase. Most stores give a registry credit when a purchase is made. Bridge's software is designed to help you manage and keep track of the accruing registry credit.
   When a registry purchase is made, the software automatically deducts the purchase amount from the desired amount. For example, if the registrant wants 12 dinner plates, and 1 is purchased, the website will automatically show that 1 is purchased and 11 are still desired.
2. Non-gift registry purchase. The minority of purchases made via Bridge are general public (non-gift registry) purchases. When a general public order occurs, you'll ship what you have in stock. If you do not have it in stock, you may ask the brand to drop ship it.

What payment gateway does Bridge Store use?
We use Authorize.net. We can help you set up an Authorize.net account. When we help you set up an Authorize.net account, we set it up under your business name. (We do not set it up under our name; you retain full control of it.) You can login to Authorize.net anytime to void a transaction, give a partial refund, or make an additional charge for a customer. Since it's your Authorize.net account, your business name will appear on the customer's credit card bill.

If you use your own store (not the Bridge Store), you'll use your own payment gateway.

Maintenance

Do you need to pay for updates to your Bridge Store?
No. Bridge Store is in the 'cloud,' like Facebook and Pinterest. As such, you'll always have the most up-to-date website. You will not have to upgrade your software (which can be expensive) or use an 'old' version of the software. Your shopping cart site will always be up to date.