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Shop Local E-commerce Platform Shop Local E-commerce Platform Powering
1,200+ Indie Businesses
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About Bridge
“We bring together the retail community to make running an online business easier and more efficient.”
~ Jason Solarek / Founder & CEO
Bridge retailers and brands at the Rosse showroom in Atlanta.  Jason Solarek, Bridge CEO and Founder, shown on far right.

Bridge retailers and brands at the Rosse showroom in Atlanta. Jason Solarek, Bridge CEO and Founder, shown on the far right.

Bridge was started to solve a pain point experienced by its founder. In 2007, Jason Solarek was running a small design agency that created and updated retail websites. When adding products to clients’ websites, he found Excel and Dropbox frustrating to use and felt like they weren’t built to share retail products easily.

While thinking about his clients' businesses over a beer at Moran's pub in New York City, he noticed that Karen, who owned a retail shop in New York, was adding the same products to her website as Sallie, who owned a store in Missouri. Upon further consideration, he realized that many of his clients were adding the same items to their websites, week after week, thereby duplicating each other's work. Drawing the process on a bar napkin, he sensed an opportunity to help his clients save time and money. Solarek asked the retailers to team up with their popular brands and share the product data. Solarek asked the brands to input and maintain the data. With retailers and brands on board, Solarek set up a system by which the product data 'flowed downstream' to the retailers' websites.

Today, Bridge helps thousands of businesses in the retail industry share products, news, and market-sensitive data. In 2022, retailers will use Bridge Store to sell tens of millions of dollars in goods. Helping them accomplish this is the Smart Product service, which enables them to easily display up to 64,920 products from 112 home goods brands. With Bridge, retailers, brands, and sales reps streamline communication and speed product to market.

Why Do We Help Indie Businesses?

Rochester circa 1905

Rochester circa 1905

Shopping local is proven to help support our schools, families, and communities. Specifically, shopping local helps produce local jobs and generate local tax revenue. Due to this, Bridge supports shopping local and enjoys developing community empowering software.

Jason Solarek, Bridge's CEO, grew up in Rochester, NY—a city that has seen its ups and downs and can benefit from local businesses growing. Using Rochester as inspiration, we seek to help towns and cities of all sizes grow and 'own' their futures vs. letting a distant tech behemoth undermine their community.

Bridge Highlights
Original Bridge concept drawn on a napkin
2007
Jason Solarek, sitting at the bar at Moran's in New York City, draws the concept for the Product Syncing service on a napkin.
Smart Products service
2010
Bridge launches Bridge Store, an e-commerce platform that allows any business to instantly create an online store with a gift registry.
British Airways award pin
2011
Bridge is a finalist in the British Airways' small business contest.
Watch video
Bridge seminar
2012
Bridge starts holding annual seminars in Atlanta.
Bridge webinar training
2015
Bridge starts holding training webinars for members.
Bridal incentive program
2016
Bridge launches the bridal incentive program to motivate brides to promote their registries.
Free table tents and window decals
2016
Bridge creates free table tents and window decals for retail clients. These in-store materials increase awareness about the stores' gift registries.
Bridge's New Review Software
2016
Bridge launches review software. Retailers start receiving a record number of reviews.
Tag products as easily as friends
2016
Bridge creates the world's first 'dollartag.' Retailers can now tag products easily.
Bridge table tents
2017
Showrooms in Atlanta and Dallas start displaying Bridge table tents. These help brands connect with more retailers via Bridge.
Free table tents and window decals
2017
Bridge holds its first conference for brands in NYC.
Your Store vs Amazon Seminar
2017
Bridge hosts 'Your Store vs. Amazon' seminars.
Bridge Universal Login
2018
Bridge creates the Smart Universal Login System. This enables visitors to log in once and visit many different sites without logging in again.
Shop thousands of items on Bridge
2019
Bridge pens the tagline "Small Store ~ Big Site" to showcase the massive online selection that Bridge retailers offer.
Bridge 2.0 launches
2019
Bridge launches a completely new version of the e-commerce platform. Bridge 2.0 is faster, has a cleaner aesthetic, and offers more powerful features.
Bridge 2.0 launches
2020
Bridge launches an updated version of its file-sharing software Library. Library enables businesses to more easily share files (PDFs, etc.) and have them appear in context alongside shoppable products.
Bridge helps members during pandemic
2020
In response to the pandemic, Bridge helps members by offering financial assistance, a warehouse availability tracking tool, and monthly virtual meetings to share sales strategies from industry leaders.
Bridge launches Wholesale Service
2020
With trade shows running at limited capacity, Bridge launches a new Wholesale Service. The service helps members place orders 2x faster than other approaches.
2x Sales Increase
2021
With the pandemic fading, the retail market rebounds, and Bridge members’ sales grow twofold to levels higher than pre-pandemic. Daily, Bridge processes its highest number of orders ever.
Wholesale Ordering truck
2021
Bridge’s Wholesale Service grows to more than100 brands. Retailers praise the service for its ability to reduce errors and simplify the process.
99.3% Monthly Retention Rate
2021
Customer retention is an indicator of value and customer satisfaction. An analysis reveals that 99.3% of retail customers retain their Bridge Store service each month.
99.3% Monthly Retention Rate
2022
Bridge surpasses 1,100 retailers using its e-commerce software Bridge Store.
99.3% Monthly Retention Rate
2022
Bridge further embraces the shop local movement and updates its primary website address to shoplocal.org. We update the domain for clients to include myshoplocal.com.

In 2023, Our Software Will...

Help

2,252,241

Shoppers

Process

198,560

Orders

Share

64,920

Products

Start

6,769

New
Registries


Thank You For Supporting Local Shops

Image of United States flag

We'd like to thank you for supporting indie stores.

What you may not know is that supporting a local store makes an impact. By supporting our 1,100 stores, you help a local community.

  • Shopping locally supports our roads, schools, and other community needs.
  • Supporting brick-and-mortar stores keep a bustling shopping district alive. Vacant stores can snowball; no one wants to see more empty storefronts.
  • Big online players sometimes ship goods with questionable authenticity and origin. In contrast, you can trust our indie stores.

My team and I are building an online shopping experience where local stores offer just as much selection as big, online players. We help 1,100+ of America's best indie stores offer the best items with great prices and quick delivery.

Please keep supporting local indie shops that make your community: your community.

Thank you.

Shop local,

Image of Jason Solarek
Jason Solarek
Founder & CEO
Bridge / ShopLocal.org
T: 1-212-254-9655
339 East 9th St.
New York, NY 10003

We Power Your Business...Who Powers Bridge?

Bridge uses the best software providers in the industry. We’d like to thank our providers and partners, including:

Cloudflare Logo

Cloudflare helps your Bridge account load more quickly and helps fend off bad actors (security).

Pingdom Logo

Pingdom monitors your Bridge website’s uptime and helps identify ways to make pages load more quickly.

Vivio Technologies Logo

Vivio stores and serves the files that make up your Bridge account, helps pages load quickly, helps stop bad actors, and provides many other key services.

By working with the best providers, we ensure that you, your customers, and our members have the optimal experience. We pool the resources, costs, and management of these companies and deliver their best services to you.

View Bridge’s Partners page

Bridge in the News
Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
October 2022


HFN: Bridge Experiences Record Growth
HFN: Bridge Experiences Record Growth
August 2021


Press Release: Bridge Membership Surges 50%
Press Release: Bridge Membership Surges 50%
July 2021


Four Trade Publications Report on Bridge's Growth
Four Trade Publications Report on Bridge's Growth
July 2020


HFN Editor Praises Bridge
HFN Editor Praises Bridge
March 2020


Seminars Offer Strategies for Independent Stores
Seminars Offer Strategies for Independent Stores
January 2020


Tableware Today Article: Chart Your Future Before Big Tech Does
Tableware Today Article: Chart Your Future Before Big Tech Does
November 2019


HFN Publishes Jason Solarek's 'Letter to the Editor'
HFN Publishes Jason Solarek's 'Letter to the Editor'
May 2019


HFN Shares Juliska is Joining Bridge
HFN Shares Juliska is Joining Bridge
March 2018


HFN Reports Bridge's Product Syncing Service Helps Indie Stores
HFN Reports Bridge's Product Syncing Service Helps Indie Stores
January 2018


Bridge Brand Conference
Bridge Brand Conference
June 2017


HFN Magazine: Bridge Crosses $2 Million in Registry Sales
HFN Magazine: Bridge Crosses $2 Million in Registry Sales
December 2016


Bridge in the News
Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
October 2022


HFN: Bridge Experiences Record Growth
HFN: Bridge Experiences Record Growth
August 2021


Press Release: Bridge Membership Surges 50%
Press Release: Bridge Membership Surges 50%
July 2021


Four Trade Publications Report on Bridge's Growth
Four Trade Publications Report on Bridge's Growth
July 2020


HFN Editor Praises Bridge
HFN Editor Praises Bridge
March 2020


Seminars Offer Strategies for Independent Stores
Seminars Offer Strategies for Independent Stores
January 2020


Tableware Today Article: Chart Your Future Before Big Tech Does
Tableware Today Article: Chart Your Future Before Big Tech Does
November 2019


HFN Publishes Jason Solarek's 'Letter to the Editor'
HFN Publishes Jason Solarek's 'Letter to the Editor'
May 2019


HFN Shares Juliska is Joining Bridge
HFN Shares Juliska is Joining Bridge
March 2018


HFN Reports Bridge's Product Syncing Service Helps Indie Stores
HFN Reports Bridge's Product Syncing Service Helps Indie Stores
January 2018


Bridge Brand Conference
Bridge Brand Conference
June 2017


HFN Magazine: Bridge Crosses $2 Million in Registry Sales
HFN Magazine: Bridge Crosses $2 Million in Registry Sales
December 2016


↑
Bridge's Shop Local Service is Trusted by 1,200+ Companies
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Bonus ~ Through June 31, 2023
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