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FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions About Shop Local's Store, Registry and Services

For Retailers & Merchants

General
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.
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 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 "yourstorename.myshoplocal.com" 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.
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.
  1. You may choose to accept credit card payments online. If you choose to offer real-time credit card processing, your 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.
  2. 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 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.
You can set your 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 Shop Local Store use POS systems such as Shopify, RetailPro, Lightspeed, and others. When a registry order comes through your Shop Local Store, 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 your Shop Local Store depends on what type of order you receive.
  1. 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.
  2. Gift registry purchase. You can give the registrant the literal item or give them a registry credit. Shop Local Stores' 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.

Syncing Service

How your website looks depends on how you choose to add Synced Products online. You can use your own website or our Shop Local Store ~ View examples
You can request to Sync products with our partner brands. The brand may approve or deny this request. This is the equivalent of asking someone to be friends on Facebook.

To Sync products with a Syncing Brand, you will first Sync with the brand. For example, if you want to Sync with Juliska, you will send Juliska a Sync request. (Syncing allows all of Juliska's items to appear in your Shop Local Store without any work needed by you.)
Yes. By default, when you Sync products with a Syncing Brand, all of its products appear in your Shop Local Store. Your Shop Local Store's price floor feature will help manage the orders you receive. By default, the price floor setting allows online purchases of Syncing Products with a total retail price of $250 or more. When a shopper wishes to make an online purchase below this amount, they are encouraged to call to order the product(s). You can change the price floor amount - even to $0 if you wish. Note: gift registry purchases are not subject to the price floor feature.
Yes.
Yes. By default, you Sync with all the products from a Syncing Brand. Then, you can hide patterns or specific products. As such, your website starts with 100% of the Syncing Brand's offering, and then you can narrow it down as you see fit. To better compete with Amazon and other large online retailers, we encourage you to show as many products as you can.
Yes. You can add any item that you want to your Shop Local Store. Learn more about Shop Local Store.
Yes. Synced Products can power your bridal registry. If you use the Shop Local Store, it comes with an online gift registry store.
The export includes prices, professional pictures, product dimensions, and 30 other variables. Retailers may import this into another e-commerce website and POS, such as Magento, Shopify, or Squarespace.
How orders are processed depends on if you are using Shop Local Store or your own 3rd-party store. If you are using your own 3rd-party store, then how you process orders is up to that 3rd party.
For free, you can Sync with up to 2,500 products from 5 partner brands. For more than 5, we offer the Product Pass. The Product Pass ($12/month) gives you Syncing with unlimited products from unlimited partner brands. You can export products from up to 5 Brands for free. Learn more about pricing.
Retailers, brands, and sales reps in the United States, Caribbean, and Canada. Of the top-20 selling tableware and giftware brands, 18 (90%) use the Syncing service.
Members are sharing 74,742 products from 115 brand partners. The shared product data includes prices, professional pictures, dimensions, descriptions, and thirty other key variables. Retailers use this data to keep their websites and in-store POS systems up to date. Members also share news, files, and sales data. Please note: a member has to be approved by the product owner to share data. A member cannot join Shop Local and get unapproved access to a partner brand’s product data.
Shop Local's service is a data-sharing and file-sharing platform. The service allows businesses to store and share product data in real-time from one central, secure library (database). Read a walk-through of how the Syncing service works.

Registries

Yes. You can add any item from any brand.
Yes. Shop Local offers you the most advanced tools to manage the accounting for what has been given and what is owed to registrants. Accuracy is key.
Yes. Easily create copies of in-store purchases in your Shop Local Store. In this way, you and registrants can see all transactions online.
Yes. Shop Local's 'Visitor' mode allows you to work with registrants while using your computer or mobile device (e.g. mobile telephone, iPad, etc.). Customers will not see private, confidential information.

Businesses use our software to manage many types of registries and gift lists, including:

  • Wedding registries
  • Bridal registries
  • Baby registries
  • Anniversary gift lists
  • Bridal show registries
  • Commitment Ceremony registries
  • House warming gift lists
  • Birthday gift lists
  • Celebration gift lists
  • Mardi Gras gift lists
  • Wishlists

Pricing

Shop Local helps businesses in the retail industry sell and buy products. We accomplish this by providing a cloud-based e-commerce platform to leading brands, local retailers, and sales reps. They use our platform to run online stores, offer online gift registries, share products, and perform wholesale operations.
No. Setup is free.
Billing cycles happen monthly and you can cancel at anytime. There is no contract length. For paid accounts, please cancel your account 7 business days before the billing cycle date (which is the 20th of the month preceding service). This gives us enough notice to not bill you and remove your business from our automated billing software.
No. No credit card is needed. When you join Shop Local as a retail member, you'll receive the free services listed above by default. As such, no credit card is required.
Shop Local provides you with an ongoing free account to use. Unlike other services that offer a trial period, you can keep using your free Shop Local membership and its services and not be constrained by a timed trial.
Brands help underwrite (pay for) the Syncing service. This helps fund the wide set of services provided by Shop Local to retailers.
Yes. Shop Local can store as many wedding registries as your business likes. Good news: all other registry types, such as baby, house warming, and wishlist, are free and do not qualify towards your registry plan. Please contact Shop Local for information on other plans: [email protected] or 1-212-254-9655
A Syncing Brand is a brand whose product catalog is instantly output and synced with your Shop Local account.
» Learn more about Brand Syncing.
A Synced Product is a product managed by a Product Syncing Brand.
Good news: Most registry types such as baby, anniversary, and house warming do not qualify towards a registry plan. Only wedding registries with one or more products in them qualify. For example, if a couple registers with your store, does not place any products in their registry list, and only displays a gift card (a gift card is included by default with each registry), this registry does not qualify towards your plan. The benefit of this approach is that stores can encourage more registrants to register and register early. The store is not paying for the wedding registrant until they start to actively add products to their list. Meanwhile, a friend or family member can still make purchases from the registry using the registry's gift card feature.
A store can keep the registry online as long as it likes.
Shop Local uses a subscription model. For paid plans, Shop Local charges a monthly, recurring subscription fee akin to Shopify or Spotify.
Yes, a business must have a federal tax ID (TIN) and a dedicated, physical storefront that consumers can access (e.g. not a P.O. box or postal/mail center).
The safety of our members and shoppers is paramount. Working with authenticated retailers helps ensure we offer a secure and satisfying experience to our members and shoppers. Currently, many other e-commerce platforms do not authenticate sellers, and this produces an environment in which shoppers aren't receiving the service they deserve.

Shop Local services professional, trusted sellers with a track record of serving customers.
Yes, you can change your account plan at any time.
You can cancel your free account anytime. For paid accounts, please cancel your account 7 business days before the billing cycle date (which is the 20th of the month preceding service). This gives us enough notice to not bill you and remove your business from our automated billing software.
Yes, a business must be an authorized dealer to Sync from the respective Syncing Brand. The brand approves a Sync request from the business sending the Sync request.

For Brands & Distributors

General

Yes. A brand can use one or all of the services we offer. For example, you may choose the Brand Syncing services but not use the online gift registry service. Once you sign up, you can choose which services to activate or deactivate.
There is no setup fee for brand accounts not using the Brand Syncing service. You can load your items to Shop Local for free. If you choose to sync products, Shop Local will help you through the Brand Syncing boarding process and there is a one-time $329 setup fee.
You can cancel your free account anytime. For paid accounts, please cancel your account 7 business days before the billing cycle date (which is the 20th of the month preceding service). This gives Shop Local enough notice to not bill you and remove your business from our automated billing software. If you are participating in the Brand Syncing service, please give Bridge and your synced retailers 90-days notice.

Wholesale Service

No. A brand can start using Shop Local Wholesale with no setup or activation charge. Notably, our brand clients have shared that other service providers sometimes charge $5,000 to set up a wholesale service. Then the service may charge a $1,500 monthly fee. Shop Local's fees are much lower compared to competitors' fees.
A brand can choose to send an invoice to the customer, accept credit cards at checkout, or both. Please note: Accepting credit cards in real-time via Bridge is a separate service. This service carries a fee. If a brand wishes to accept credit cards online, please ask Bridge for pricing.
Yes. Any retailer can use a brand's wholesale account. The retailer will open a free Shop Local account and then log in to the brand's wholesale account. The brand controls which businesses it allows to make wholesale orders. A brand will approve each retailer to allow wholesale purchasing. For example, a retailer can't view a brand's wholesale prices or make a wholesale purchase unless it's approved by the brand. Learn how a retailer requests wholesale access in Shop Local's Support Portal.
No. Shop Local Wholesale does not pool many brands' items alongside competitors' items on one site, which a marketplace service often does. Shop Local Wholesale enables each brand to have its own account that shows just its products. A retailer can easily browse to this site and makes purchases as if it were visiting the brand's showroom. If a retailer wishes to see another brand, it will visit that brand's account, as if walking to the next showroom. Shop Local enables retailers to go from 'showroom' to 'showroom' and stay logged in. When a retailer makes purchases, these will be accessible online. The retailer can locate these e-receipts in its own Shop Local account or by visiting the respective brand's Shop Local account.
Yes. A brand by default receives the website address 'brandname.myshoplocal.com.' A brand can choose a unique domain name such as yourbrandnameshowroom.com and 'mask' its Shop Local Wholesale address behind this domain.
The service is free for retailers and sales reps. Brands pay a flat fee per month per brand ($49/month per brand) or a 2.9% commission model. You can choose between the two fee structures. This fee is lower than other wholesale platforms' charges. Bridge can offer lower prices because Bridge is not dependent on the wholesale service to generate operating revenue.
Yes. A brand can use just the wholesale service. While using many of Shop Local's services helps leverage existing product data for many purposes, it is not required.

Syncing Brands

  1. The consumer purchases the item on the retailer's site. The retailer receives a notification about this order via email.
  2. The retailer looks at its inventory. If it has the item in stock, it ships directly from the store. If the item is not in stock, the retailer will place an order for the item with the brand. Learn more about how the Brand Syncing service works here.
No, a brand does not have to drop ship. If the brand drop ships, a retailer may ask the brand to drop ship a Brand Syncing order. If the brand does not drop ship, the brand may mail the item to the retailer, and the retailer will mail it to the customer. With this model, the retailer charges enough to cover shipping costs and the cost to ship the item to the customer.
If a brand has a minimum order amount, and the retailer has a Bridge order in hand, the retailer will first assess if the order is over the minimum or not. If it's over the minimum, the retailer places the order. If the order is under the minimum, the retailer may decide if there are additional products it would like to order. To meet the minimum requirement, the retailer may order products to fulfill the order as well as stock its store.
About one hour per month.
Yes. The brand chooses with which retailers it syncs its products. A brand member's products will not show up in all retailers' shops. Please note: the retailer must also accept the sync request. Likewise, a retailer can send a sync request. The brand can choose to accept or decline this request.
Yes, a brand can load stock for its Synced Products. The brand has two choices to share stock: 1. Manually upload an Excel file with stock, or 2. Setup an automated FTP process to share stock. If a brand wishes to use FTP, please contact Bridge for details.

The brand controls which businesses see stock. For example, the brand can set the stock to appear only to authorized retailers and reps when logged in. Sharing stock is optional. A Product Syncing Brand member is not required to share its stock.

For more information about how Shop Local works,
please visit the Shop Local Help Portal.