One of the most important things that your business can do is have your brides add a link on their official wedding website leading back to your site.

Why? Friends and family often start their shopping for the bride on her official wedding website.  And each gift registry you have at your store is potentially worth $1,000s in sales. But these sales won't occur if the bride's friends and family don't know that she is registered with your store. If you're not listed on the bride's official site, your store might as well not exist. We therefore have to ensure that the bride adds a link on her official wedding website (which is often at theknot.com, amazingregistry.com, or myregistry.com) leading to her registry on your website.  

If the bride's official wedding site does not contain a link pointing back to her registry on your Bridge store, then your store will likely miss out on $1,000s in sales.   

Below are steps you as a retailer must take in order to ensure your store is listed on the bride's wedding website. 

1. Be sure to have the bride's email on file.  Your store e-mailing the bride her registry URL is crucial to her adding it on her official website. Why? A bride's registry URL is often long and its easier for the bride to copy and paste this URL into her account with theknot.com vs try to remember it. The bride's Bridge URL with your store may resemble this:

https://[yourstore].myshoplocal.com/registry.cfm/[bride's last name]_[groom's last name]/[wedding date]

When a bride signs up in store, be sure to ask her for her email. ;)

2. Do research on your brides. Find their official website and see if they're linking back to your store. Here is how to find the bride's official website (e.g. theknot.com).

A. Login into your Bridge account.

B. In the horizontal navigation bar, roll over “Gift Registry” and from the drop down click on “Registry Management.”  

C. On the Registry Management page, find the bride you wish to do research on.

D. To the far right of the bride's name, click on the Google icon.

E. Bridge's software will open a new browser window and Google the bride and groom's name and "wedding."  One of the first results will likely be their official wedding website. 

3. Bridge has pre-written template emails that you can use to motivate your brides. Your store can use these incentive emails to make sure your brides add the links.  (Please note: you will need the bride's email to take advantage of these pre-written emails.)

Here is how to use the incentive email template feature:

A. Log in to your Bridge. 

B. In the horizontal navigation, roll over “Gift Registry" and from the drop down click on “Registry Management.”  

C. On the Registry Management page, find the bride you wish to motivate to add the link.

D. Click the bride's name. This will take you to the bride's registry. 

E. On the bride's registry page, look at the picture of the bride and groom. You will see text displayed over the bride's photo. These are email links that generate different template emails. 

F. Click on “Incentive” link. This will open a template email in your local mail program (such as Outlook).  Send the auto populated email to the bride encouraging her to complete her incentive steps.

4. On your Bridge, be sure your settings are set to 'yes' to email the bride reminders to add a link.  (Please note: you will need the bride's email to take advantage of this feature.)

Here is how to use Bridge's email reminder features:

A. Log in to your Bridge account.

B. Roll over “Management.”

C. From the drop down, click on “Your Account Profile.”

D. On the Your Account page on the right hand side, look for “Registry Services”. You will see  all the options regarding Bridal notifications.

E. There is the option that says "Before the event (e.g. wedding), email registrant reminders...". Be sure this is set to Yes.

If you make changes, be sure to scroll down and save your changes by clicking on the green "Save" button.

5. Offer to help your brides add the links on their official website. You can offer to do this while the bride is in the store. You could also call the bride and offer to help. Remember: each registry is worth $1,000s in sales so calling the bride is worth it.

6. Your Bridge comes with an incentive program to motivate the brides. One step in the incentive program is that the bride must add a link on her official wedding website. Be familiar with your incentive program. Learn more about it here:

https://www.shoplocal.org/help-center.cfm/193/what-is-the-bridal-gift-registry-5-step-incentive-program

7. Share with the bride the steps on 'how to' add a link. 

You can share the steps below:

A. Theknot.com steps:

https://www.shoplocal.org/help-center.cfm/65/help-your-brides-create-a-registry-on-theknot_com-and-make-it-work-for-you

B. Myregistry.com steps:

https://www.shoplocal.org/help-center.cfm/222/how-to-add-your-bridge-registry-to-myregistry_com

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By following the above steps, you will see a significant rise in your online sales.