Pricing/Cost

How much does Bridge Store cost?
View plans & pricing for retailers
View plans & pricing for brands

Setup

Is there a setup fee?
No.

Do you have to host the Bridge software on your own third-party server?
No. You can start using the store and registry immediately upon signing upon. You do not need to host the software. Some e-commerce software requires you to download files and host them with a hosting company.

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

Design

What will your Bridge Store look like?
You control the design of your Bridge Store. You can customize the colors, images and features of your Bridge Store.

Products

Can you add your own items to your Bridge Store?
Yes. You can add any item from any brand. The item does not have to be from a Smart Brand to be added to your store or a 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 $150 to be purchased online. When a shopper views a product below this price floor, the cart allows customers to add a multiple of the item whose total price will exceed the price floor. 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. When you open a Bridge Store, your URL/domain name by default will be: [yourstorename].bridgecatalog.com. You can forward your domain's traffic to this URL or 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 free gift registry software. 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.) 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 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 area.

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 email will include this information. You will call the customer and collect their 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 doe your checkout. With this service, customers enter their credit card information in your checkout just as if they were shopping at Macys.com or Bloomingdales.com. When the customer checks out, the process begins to move the money to your bank account. Normally, the money is in your account the next business day. With this service, you do not have to call the customer after the purchase. 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 sell online?
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 does Bridge work with your POS?
Yes. You keep your existing POS. Retailers that use Bridge Store use POS systems such as RetailPro, Lightspeed, and others. When a registry order comes through Bridge, you will either take the item out of inventory or give a registry credit to the registrant. 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. When dealing with registries, you can use just Bridge's software to manage the registries.

How do you 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 software will automatically show that 1 is purchased and 11 are still desired.
2. Non-gift registry purchase. When a general public order occurs, you'll ship what you have in stock. If you do not have the product in stock, you may ask the brand to drop ship it.

What payment gateway does Bridge Store use?
We use Authorize.net. We help you set up an Authorize.net account 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 statement.

If you use your own store (not 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 software. You will not have to pay to upgrade your software or use an 'old' version of the software.

Americans with Disability Act (ADA) Compliance

Are Bridge stores, registries, and accounts ADA Compliant?
Yes. Bridge accounts are ADA compliant. We welcome all members of the community to navigate our network.