These days, ugly Amazon warehouses are beating up pretty retail stores. Many stores in 2020 had record online sales that made up 40% or more of revenue, but they are struggling because they had to bear the burden of retail stores. Retail stores cost more per square foot to rent, furnish, and maintain. They also cost more to staff. A warehouse person need not be a people person and a snazzy dresser; they can exhibit anger management issues and wear Sponge Bob Square Pants t-shirts. Due to this, personnel costs are much lower and easier to fill at warehouses.
Retail stores with 40% of revenue should be: 40% warehouse. Yet, I've seen that often 40% is comprised of expensive real estate with coiffed staff and sofas for customers and staff to rest their feet. In an Amazon warehouse, I don't think the staff is even allowed to sit. Amazon ONLY ships sofas; It doesn't use them.
If your store's sales are 30% online, then 30% of your store should be a warehouse. If 50% is online, then 50% should be. Best Buy knows this. Its business strategy has helped it avoid many retailers’ dire fates and instead thrive (Read this week's WSJ article about Best Buy's success here).
Bridge is helping indie stores get out from under this analog weight and pivot to digital. Please look at your physical store: how does it compare to an Amazon warehouse? The goal: make your store more efficient, less costly to sustain, and easier to ship out of.
To help you along, Bridge is using technology to make your brands’ warehouses: your warehouses. Bridge is giving you a great e-commerce website that is connected behind the scenes to your brands and enabling the brands to share stock in real-time with your site. Our goal is to help you keep the sofa ;)