Bridge for Retailers:
Overview

Next Post
  1. Overview
  2. Store
  3. Gift Registry
  4. Product Syncing
  5. Add to Website
  6. Google & SEO
  7. Amazon
  8. Pricing
Join +1,100 of America's best local shops who have sold $141,294,171 via Bridge
Computer image

The Ivy House, a gift shop in Texas, uses Bridge to offer an online store, get product data from its brands, and place wholesale orders more quickly.

» Get Bridge

We Make Running A Retail Business Easier

The easiest software suite to run and grow your online business.

Bridge offers retailers a variety of key software services to sell more and save time. Using Bridge, retailers run their e-commerce business, grow their wedding and gift registry business, and instantly stock their website with products. Customers spend more money, registrants are happier, and stores avoid pricing errors.

Start with the free plan today. You can set up an online store in minutes with no technical knowledge.

Highlights

Contents

  1. How Does It Work
  2. Services & Materials
  3. Problem
  4. Retail Clients
  5. Retail Clients: 99.3% Renewal Rate
  6. Four Reasons Stores Choose Bridge
  7. Add Bridge
  8. Qualifications
  9. Links

How Does Bridge Work For Retailers?

1

We Give Your
Business
A Free Account

yourstorename.myshoplocal.com

View Live Example:
babcockgifts.myshoplocal.com

If you wish, you can use your own domain (e.g. yourname.com).

2

Tell Your Bridge What Brands You Offer

You can add any brands to your account that you wish. To help you get started, Bridge offers you a directory of 3,153 brands from which to pick.

3

Have Your Brands Do the Work For You

You can send sync requests to brands that share products via Bridge (the Product Syncing service). Your account can be pre-populated with up to 64,215 products from 111 participating brands.

View Live Example:
Babcock's Juliska Home Page

4

Receive Orders

Your customers can checkout via your Bridge Store. You'll receive an email with the customer's contact and order information. If you have real-time credit card processing set up with Bridge, your Bridge Store will ask the customer for their credit card information during checkout.

5

Grow Your Gift Registry Business

You can use Bridge's award-winning registry software to offer an online registry service to your customers. Family and friends can visit registries on your Bridge account and make purchases from the lists. If you have a website, you can add a "Gift Registry” link that leads to your Bridge Registry home page.

View Live Example:
Babcock's Gift Registry Home Page

6

Place Wholesale Orders Easily

When you need to place a wholesale order, you can use your Bridge. Bridge Wholesale reduces the number of steps required to place an order by 50%.

Bridge Offers You These Services

Choose all of the services below or pick them piecemeal:

Training logo
Online Store
Bridge offers best-in-class, award-winning e-commerce software. You can use Bridge Store as your primary site or add it to an existing site.
Learn more
Self-updating store & registry logo
Gift Registry
Service
Bridge is the leader in powering gift registry services for retailers. We offer a comprehensive suite of services for store owners and registrants.
Learn more
Smart Products logo
Product Syncing
Service
Bridge’s Product Syncing service unchains you from your computer. Our service saves you time and money on website maintenance and helps you show more product online.
Learn more

Gift Registry Service

Married couple by sunset
Bridge is an award-winning, industry leader in gift registry software. Our software's benefits:
  • More registrants will register with your business.
  • Registrants will add more items to their registries.
  • Your registry sales will increase.
  • You'll save time and money in your management of registries.

» Learn about Bridge gift registry software

Product Syncing

Smart Products logo

How Do You Add Products To Your Website?

When adding products, most retailers receive an Excel file and images. What if there was a way to sell these products online without those steps? There is: Product Syncing let you bypass Dropbox and Excel. You can use Product Syncing to save time and cut costs.

Featured Product Syncing Partners

Please note: a retailer must be an authorized dealer to sync products

» Learn about the Product Syncing marketing service

What Problem Is Bridge Solving for Retailers?

Jason Solarek, Bridge CEO, with the Bridge 'ethos'

Jason Solarek, Bridge CEO, with the Bridge 'ethos'

There are millions of indie stores in the world who don't get to succeed online. They get ripped off by web designers and coders, have to pay local taxes unlike many Amazon sellers, don't have access to cheap money from Wall St. like Amazon.com, and get attacked by hackers looking to steal credit cards—all factors which prevent them from running their business, helping their customers, and servicing their communities.

Because of these expenses and obstacles, their websites often don't survive for more than a few years. They may even give up completely, have no website, and just have a non-selling, informational page on Facebook. They won't be able to help their customers make purchases online, view past orders, and become a digital, omni-channel business. They are stuck in an analog world where they can only sell to customers in their neighborhood, a neighborhood filled with customers who increasingly don't want to shop in store and instead prefer digital.

This sets the store owner up for failure because it's not where its customers want to shop. The small store owner and its employees who may take over the business are stuck in a cycle of 'digital poverty' and disadvantage. What if there was a way to fix this poverty, help level the playing field, and nurture indie businesses online?

Bridge is this solution.

Which Retailers Use Bridge Store?

Herend costing savings by using Bridges
Persnickety in Madison, MS

1,177 retailers use Bridge, including:

Featured Retail Members

1,177 Retail Members & Growing
Retailers are joining Bridge at a brisk pace. We believe there is strength in numbers. Each member helps others leverage the collective power and knowledge of indie stores.

» View directory of retailers using Bridge Store

99.3% of Stores Can’t be Wrong

99.3% of Stores Can’t be Wrong Each month, an average of 99.3% of retailers renew their Bridge Store service. A high renewal rate demonstrates that retailers are happy with Bridge’s software and customer service. This high customer loyalty suggests that Bridge is providing great value for members.

Four Reasons Why 1,000+ Stores Choose Bridge

1

We get customers to spend
more money with your store.

Stores that use Bridge earn 18% more. Bridge gives you a variety of tools to bring in more traffic and get visitors to spend more. Read the case study on 18%.

2

We make it easy.

You can set up an online store in minutes. With no technical knowledge, you can offer a powerful, full-featured website to customers. We help you accomplish in hours what other services require weeks to do.

3

We’re retail experts.

We specialize in retail stores like yours. We understand your business. We bring you 20 years of experience and have overseen $130m+ in online sales for indie stores. Read the history of Bridge and the team that created it.

4

We make the price right.

We offer plans and pricing designed for indie businesses. There is no set up fee. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of our retailers use our free plan. View retailer pricing.

Is Bridge Right For Your Store?

Retailers that choose Bridge Store often have a few traits in common, including:

  1. A website that needs more attention and resources than an indie business can afford.
  2. A desire to grow its online product offering.
  3. A limited budget for website development, operations, or maintenance.
  4. Limited technical know-how.

Thankfully, Bridge can rectify these issues quickly. Most other online platforms require too much time and money. Bridge is designed to help indie retailers bypass these barriers.

Add Bridge To Your Online Business

What is your current website situation?

A. B. C.
Situation: “I have no official business website. I only have a Facebook page or other social media account for my business.” “I have an official business website; it's only an informational site.” “I have an official business website; it has e-commerce functionality.”
Assessment: Since you have no official website, you can use Bridge as your business's official website. On your Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts, you can add your Bridge website as your official website (e.g. yourstorename.myshoplocal.com). You can edit your existing website and add links from it to your Bridge Store. For example, you can add a link that says "Gift Registry" that leads to your Bridge's Gift Registry page. You can also add a link that says "Shop Full Juliska Catalog" that leads to your Bridge's Juliska page. How you use Bridge depends on if you wish to use Bridge's gift registry software. If you wish to use Bridge's gift registry software, you can add a link on your existing site saying "Gift Registry" that leads to your Gift Registry home page.

When you have your own e-commerce store, you may wish to import Bridge's product data into your e-commerce database.
  Ivy House Bridge Store
Ivy House 		Babcock Gifts website
Babcock Gifts 		Sasha Nicholas website
Sasha Nicholas
Choice: Bridge Handles It All for You Hybrid Advanced Hybrid
Overview: You use Bridge Store as your primary website. You can customize the design and content. You can choose to sync with products. In addition to synced products, you can add and sell any products that you wish. You keep your existing website and add links leading to your Bridge Store. For example, you may add a "Gift Registry" link on your site that leads to your Bridge Gift Registry page. You may use your existing website and import synced data into it. You may use Bridge's Registry service.
Services Used: Bridge Store + Bridge Registry + Bridge Product Syncing Your 3rd-Party Website + Bridge Store + Bridge Registry + Bridge Product Syncing Varies
Examples: Ivy House
P.S. The Letter
Persnickety
Pieces Of Eight
 B.C. Clark (3 locations)
Babcock Gifts
Schiffman's (3 locations)
 Hudson-Poole Jewelers
Sasha Nicholas
Time to Setup: Instant 20 minutes or less
» Support page: Add a link from your website to your Bridge 		Varies
» Support page: Export your Synced Products
Setup Cost: Free Free or low-cost depending on the service used to administer your site. Fee that your web person will charge.
Bridge Software Updates: Free & instant Free & instant Only applicable if using Bridge Registry.
Ideal for: Business wanting a new website.
Business with no existing website.
Business with an existing website
(such as Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, etc.). 		Business with an advanced e-commerce website.
Choice A
Situation:
 “I have no official business website. I only have a Facebook page or other social media account for my business.”
Assessment:
 Since you have no official website, you can use Bridge as your business's official website. On Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts, you can add your Bridge website as your official website (e.g. yourstorename.myshoplocal.com).
Ivy House Bridge Store
Bridge Handles It All for You
Overview:
 You use Bridge Store as your primary website. You can customize the design and content in your Bridge Store and gift registry. You can choose to sync with products. In addition to synced products, you can add any products that you wish to your Bridge Store.
Services Used:
Bridge Store + Bridge Registry + Bridge Product Syncing
Example Websites:
Ivy House
P.S. The Letter
Persnickety
Pieces Of Eight
Time to Setup:
Instant Setup
Setup Cost:
No Setup Cost
Bridge Software Updates:
Free & Instant Software Updates
Ideal for:
Business wanting a new website.
Business with no existing website.
Choice B
Situation:
 “I have an official business website; it's only an informational site.”
Assessment:
 You can edit your existing website and add links from it to your Bridge Store. For example, you can add a link that says, "Gift Registry" that leads to your Bridge's Gift Registry page. You can also add a link that says "Shop Full Juliska Catalog" that leads to your Bridge's Juliska page.
Babcock Gifts website
Hybrid
Overview:
 You keep your existing website and add links leading to your Bridge Store. For example, you may add a "Gift Registry" link on your site that leads to your Bridge Gift Registry page.
Services Used:
Your 3rd-Party Website + Bridge Store + Bridge Registry + Bridge Product Syncing
Example Websites:
B.C. Clark (3 locations)
Babcock Gifts
Schiffman's (3 locations)
Time to Setup:
20 minutes or less
» View support page
Setup Cost:
Free or low-cost setup depending on the service used to administer your site
Bridge Software Updates:
Free & Instant Software Updates
Ideal for:
Business with an existing informational website
(such as Squarespace, Weebly, etc.).
Choice C
Situation:
 “I have an official business website; it has e-commerce functionality.”
Assessment:
 How you use Bridge depends on if you wish to use Bridge's gift registry software. If you wish to use Bridge's gift registry software, you can add a link on your existing site saying "Gift Registry" that leads to your Bridge's Gift Registry home page.

When you have your own e-commerce store, you may wish to import Bridge's product data into your e-commerce database.
Sasha Nicholas website
Use Your Own Site
Overview:
 You may use your existing website and import Smart Product data into it. You may use Bridge's Registry service.
Services Used:
Varies
Example Websites:
Hudson-Poole Jewelers
Sasha Nicholas
Time to Setup:
Varies
» View support page
Setup Cost:
Fee that your web person will charge.
Bridge Software Updates:
Only applicable if using Bridge Registry.
Ideal for:
Business with an advanced e-commerce website.

Support, SEO, and Wholesale Ordering

Marketing Materials
Marketing &
Support
Bridge gives stores table tents, decals, and more to drive traffic and sales. Bridge offers free training and support to retailers that have a Bridge account.
Training logo
Search Engine
Optimization
A Bridge account helps your business increase its Google ranking. Stores that use Bridge often rank on page 1 of Google for important search terms.
Learn more
Wholesale Ordering truck
Wholesale Ordering
Service
Bridge Wholesale combines the best features from wholesale marketplaces and buying on a brand’s site into a new service.

Retailer Qualifications

Are there requirements a retailer must meet to join and use Bridge Store?
Yes, a business must have a federal tax ID (TIN) and one or more dedicated, physical storefronts that consumers can access (e.g. not a P.O. box or postal/mail center).