Shop Local's Online Store Can Help Your Business
Sell More & Save
Time with Shop Local
Time with Shop Local
- Setting up an online store is often expensive and time-consuming.
- Leading e-commerce service providers do not provide an easy way for indie retailers to manage an e-commerce store.
- Shop Local's Online Store is more efficient and affordable to use than other leading software choices.
- Our Store is free. Setup is free.
Overview
- How Are Businesses Using Shop Local's Store?
- Easily Add Up to 3,235 Brands
- How Much Does Running an Online Store Cost?
- 21 Reasons Businesses Choose Shop Local Store
- About Bridge: The Company Building Shop Local
- Reviews from Shoppers
- 99.3% of Stores Can't be Wrong
- Questions About Shop Local Store?
- Bridge & Shop Local in the News
How Are Businesses Using Shop Local's Store?
Examples
Shop Local Store Handles It All
A business uses our Store as its primary website. It can customize the design and content. It can choose to sync with products. In addition to synced products, the business can add and sell any products that it wishes.
Services being used: Shop Local Store
Free, optional add ons:
Retail Examples:
Time to set up: Instant
Setup cost: Free
Ideal for:
- Businesses wanting a new website
- Businesses with no existing website
Shop Local software updates: Free & instant
Hybrid
A business uses its existing site and our Store. The business adds links on its primary website leading to pages on its Store. For example, it adds a "Gift Registry" link on its site that leads to its Gift Registry page.
Services being used: 3rd-party, primary website + Shop Local Store
Free, optional add ons:
Retail Examples:
- B.C. Clark
- Babcock Gifts
- The Boutique
- Friend and Co.
- Schiffman's (3 locations)
Time to set up: 1 hour or less. » View support page
Setup cost: Free or low-cost depending on the service used to administer your site
Ideal for:
Businesses with an existing website (such as from Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, etc.)
Businesses with an existing website (such as from Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, etc.)
Shop Local software updates: Free & instant
Shop Local Handles It All for You
Hybrid
A business uses our Store as its primary website. It can customize the design and content. It can choose to sync with products. In addition to synced products, the business can add and sell any products that it wishes.
A business uses its existing site and our Store. The business adds links on its primary website leading to pages on its Store. For example, it adds a "Gift Registry" link on its site that leads to its Gift Registry page.
Services being used: Shop Local Store
Services being used: 3rd-party, primary website + Shop Local Store
Free, optional add ons:
Free, optional add ons:
Retail Examples:
Retail Examples:
- B.C. Clark
- Babcock Gifts
- The Boutique
- Friend and Co.
- Schiffman's (3 locations)
Time to set up: Instant
Time to set up: 20 minutes or less. » View support page
Setup cost: Free
Setup cost: Free or low-cost depending on the service used to administer your site
Ideal for:
- Businesses wanting a new website
- Businesses with no existing website
Ideal for:
Businesses with an existing website (such as from Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, etc.)
Businesses with an existing website (such as from Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, etc.)
Shop Local software updates: Free & instant
Shop Local software updates: Free & instant
Easily Add Up to 3,235 Brands
Shop Local's Online Store offers your business a directory of more than 3,235 brands to add to your Online Store. Using our Brand Directory, you can easily add a brand to your Store, show a brand's logo, add products for it, and more. Save yourself from having to hunt for this information.
Don't see a brand in our Brand Directory that you need? We'll add the brand. Your Store allows you to add any item from any brand.
For 115 of the brands in the Brand Directory, Shop Local has partnerships with these brands. These brands are our Syncing partners.
+ View more Product Syncing partners
Do you sell any of the above brands? If so, we can instantly add products from the above brands to your Store.
How Much Does Running an Online Store Cost?
When a business offers an online store, it's a costly venture. A business, such as an indie store, brand, or sales rep group, will build the site and then have to maintain it. On a day-to-day basis, the business has to:
- Pay for design and coding of new features.
- Pay for security.
- Ensure its web pages load quickly. This often requires the business to use image-optimization software to reduce the page size and a CDN (content delivery network) to get the content closer to the visitor's geographic location.
- Pay for hosting.
Shop Local bundles the above features and services together as part of our general service offering. This makes it easier and more cost-efficient for clients.
Other providers charge higher out-of-the-box rates and then charge service fees for add-on services. The charges add up and the services become expensive. In contrast, we offer many features out-of-the-box by default with Shop Local Store, so our Store costs less and is easier to use.
In addition, our Syncing service drastically reduces the labor needed to maintain an online business. Other providers do not offer a product syncing service.
How Does Shop Local's Store Compare to Other E-commerce Services?
| Feature |
Shop Local | Shopify | Squarespace | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Comes pre-populated with products from your top-selling brands |
||||
Offers your business built-in gift & bridal registry software |
||||
Offers your business a continual free plan |
» View a comparison between Shop Local's Store and other e-commerce services
See how Shop Local compares to:
- Shopify
- Squarespace
- BigCommerce
» View 11 features comparing Shop Local to other software platforms
|
|
|
| Shop Local Store | Shopify |
Jeffrey Bannon Shop Local Store |
Jeffrey Bannon Shopify Store |
21 Reasons Businesses Choose Shop Local Store
Setup is Quick
1.
Customize Your
Design
Design
2.
Easy for
Customers to Shop
Customers to Shop
3.
Easy to Add
Products
Products
5.
Mobile Friendly
7.
Easy to Maintain
8.
Security
9.
Add Multiple
Pictures per Product
Pictures per Product
12.
Add Coupons
and Discounts
and Discounts
13.
Offer Gift Cards
14.
Professional
Reporting Tools
Reporting Tools
15.
Order, Inventory,
and Tax Management
Tools
and Tax Management
Tools
16.
Built-in Monogramming
and Engraving
Features
and Engraving
Features
17.
Free,
Unique URL
Unique URL
18.
Includes
Review Software
Review Software
19.
Easily Share
Products to
Social Media
Products to
Social Media
21.
More Shop Local Store Features
Add and edit many products at once (bulk product processing).
Quickly add images to products using Shop Local's image finder feature.
Use a custom domain (yourstore.com).
Boost your search engine ranking using Shop Local's search engine optimization (SEO) tools.
Use Google Analytics.
Easily add news & events.
Add custom pages.
Send abandoned cart emails to customers.
Create and manage promotional banners.
Offer referral programs.
Easily display the brand's logo alongside respective collections and products.
Easily add and display product dimensions.
Allow customers to ‘Like’ and save items.
Support ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) guidelines.
More Shop Local Store Features
Add and edit many products at once (bulk product processing).
Quickly add images to products using Shop Local's image finder feature.
Use a custom domain (yourstore.com).
Boost your search engine ranking using Shop Local's search engine optimization (SEO) tools.
Use Google Analytics.
Easily add news & events.
Add custom pages.
Send abandoned cart emails to customers.
Create and manage promotional banners.
Offer referral programs.
Easily display the brand's logo alongside respective collections and products.
Easily add and display product dimensions.
Allow customers to ‘Like’ and save items.
Support ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) guidelines.
We're Bridge and we've been designing and building websites for businesses since 2001. Today, our platform services hundreds of businesses and processes millions of dollars in sales for clients. Our software leverages 22 years of retail experience to connect the retail and wholesale worlds.
Reviews from Shoppers
Shoppers Give Shop Local Store an Average of 4.9 Out of 5 Stars
"Great website and easy to navigate!”
~ Nancy Nelson in TX
Shopped at Shop Local retailer Ivy House
Shopped at Shop Local retailer Ivy House
"Excellent website, very user friendly. Easy checkout and payment process."
~ Robert Stevenson in TN
Shopped at Shop Local retailer Babcock Gifts
Shopped at Shop Local retailer Babcock Gifts
99.3% of Stores Can't be Wrong
Each month, an average of 99.3% of retailers renew their Shop Local Store service. A high renewal rate demonstrates that retailers are happy with Shop Local's software and customer service. This high customer loyalty suggests that Shop Local is providing great value for members.
Questions About Shop Local Store?
No.
No. You can start using the Store and gift registry software immediately upon signing up. You do not host the software. Some e-commerce software requires you to download files and host them with a hosting company.
No. You can start using the software immediately upon signing up. You do not need to install any software.
You control the design of your Store. You can customize the colors, images, and features of your Store.
Yes. You can add any item from any brand. The item does not have to be from a Syncing Brand to be added to your Store or a gift registry.
By default, yes. Yet, you control what a customer can purchase in your Store.
You can choose to only display but not sell Synced Products, or you can choose to hide specific Synced Products or a collection of Synced Products.
Yes.
Yes. When you open a Bridge Store, your URL/domain name by default will be: yourstorename.myshoplocal.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 the universal domain service for your account.
Yes. Bridge Store comes with an online gift registry service.
If you are a retailer, the gift registry is activated by default. If you are a brand, you can activate the service in the ‘Your Account’ area.
You will receive an email with order details. The email will contain the customer's information, shipping information, and the items ordered. Your orders will also be stored online in an Orders area.
- You may choose to accept credit card payments online. If you choose to offer real-time credit card processing, your Bridge Store will ask the customer for their credit card information during checkout. When the customer pays online via credit card, the money will normally be available in your bank account the next business day.
- Your business may wish to not accept credit cards online. When you do not accept credit cards online, the customer 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'll use the telephone number from the order email to call the customer and collect credit card details via telephone. You will key the credit card number into your in-store terminal.
To fulfill the order, you will determine if the purchase is a registry order or a general public (non-registry) purchase. If the order is a general public purchase, and the item needs to be delivered to the customer, you'll check if you have the item in stock. If you have the item in stock, you can ship it. If you do not have the item in stock, you will contact the vendor or your sales rep to place an order. If the vendor drop ships, you may ask it to do this. If the purchase is a gift registry purchase, how you handle the order depends on if you give the actual item or a registry credit. If your store gives the bride registry credit, you can do this. (You do not have to immediately ship registry purchases.)
Please note: a few brands do not drop ship to the customer. If not, the item ordered may be shipped to your store, then you may ship it to the customer.
Please note: a few brands do not drop ship to the customer. If not, the item ordered may be shipped to your store, then you may ship it to the customer.
You can set your Bridge Store to just allow customers to browse items. If you choose this option, the software replaces 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.
Yes. You keep your existing POS. Retailers that use Bridge Store use POS systems such as Shopify, 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. If you give a registry credit, you do not have to enter the order in your POS. The order will exist as a 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 you manage inventory with Bridge depends on what type of order you make via Bridge.
- Regular 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.
- Gift registry purchase. You can give the registrant the literal item or give them a registry credit. Bridge's software is designed to help you manage and keep track of what has been given to the registrant. When a registry purchase is made, the software automatically deducts the purchased quantity from the desired quantity. For example, if the registrant requested 12 dinner plates, and 1 is purchased, the software will automatically show that 1 is purchased and 11 are still desired.
We use Authorize.net. If you wish to accept credit cards online, we set up an Authorize.net account under your business name. You can log in to Authorize.net 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.
We welcome all members of the community to navigate our network. We update our software based upon guidance suggested by the ADA.
Tags: e-commerce software, self-updating store, smart store, small business, small shop, best, indie store, alternative to shopify, competitor to shopify, collaboration software, shopping cart software
