Business leader Scott Galloway said this past week on his podcast Pivot that "complexity is a tax on the poor." I'd expand on that and posit that: complexity is a tax on indie businesses.
What if indie businesses could reduce the complexity and costs of running an online business? I believe we can. Bridge is reducing the costs of running an online business for more than a thousand businesses.
How do we reduce the 'tax'? Bridge often helps a retailer set up an online store with 3,000 products in less than an hour—at no cost.
How do we make it this easy? We have woven together the retail industry. We have created an e-commerce community that brings together retailers, brands, and reps. The Bridge platform helps them save time and money, sell more, and makes running a business more enjoyable.
Let’s look at an example. Bridge enables the premium retailer P.S. The Letter, located in Fort Worth, TX, to do the following:
The retailer can easily add brands to its Bridge Store. Bridge offers a brand directory with 2,800 brands from which to pick.
Of these 2,800 brands, Bridge has created partnerships with 115. The Smart Products partnership enables a brand’s products to be instantly output on a retailer’s Bridge Store. Using this service, 56 brands are updating 48,490 products on P.S. The Letter’s site. The retailer is saving more than $36,368 in labor and more than 70 weeks on product upkeep.
The retailer can see the 56 brands’ reordering terms in real-time via Bridge.
The retailer can place wholesale orders with these brands via a brand's Bridge account with just three clicks.
The retailer can view wholesale orders from participating Smart Brands in its Bridge. Bridge pools orders from different brands in one area for easy viewing.
The retailer can directly message 56 Smart Brands. The retailer doesn’t need to visit the brand's site or know the brand’s email. The store simply clicks a button to message the brand.
For all of the store’s 128 brands, the retailer can see the sales rep’s name and contact information.
Using features built into the retailer’s Bridge Store, the retailer can request that a Smart Brand update its products, lifestyle images, collection images, and price lists. These features reduce what may be a 10 step process down to just 1 step.
The retailer can track requests sent to brands and reps via the retailer’s Bridge Ticketing System.
The retailer can share news on its Bridge Store, and it will show up on the Newsfeed of friended brands, sales reps, interior designers, and market buildings. The retailer's friends do not have to visit the retailer's website or use a social media platform like Facebook.
The retailer's friends can comment, like, and share the news that the retailer shares.
The retailer receives the above services for free. The retailer does not pay for the Smart Products services nor the use of the features above.
Sales reps use Bridge for free.
The brands pay $9/year per synced retailer.
99.3% of retailers retain their Bridge Store each month. Viewed annually, Bridge has a 92% annual retention rate for retailer customers.
In contrast, many stores use software, like Shopify’s, that exerts a high “tax” on them. Shopify offers a siloed, isolated experience for businesses which inherently increases complexity and costs. Retailers, brands, and reps are kept separate from each other.
For example, a retailer using Shopify experiences the following:
When the retailer wants to add a brand, it has to find the brand’s logo, About information, and other details before adding it to its website. The retailer may offer more than 100 brands. It has to do this for all the brands. When a brand’s logo is updated, the retailer has to stay abreast of this and update it.
The retailer has to add the brand’s products to the retailer’s site. The brand is not updating the products on the retailer’s site. The retailer has to spend thousands of dollars and months of time updating products.
The retailer can't see a brand's reordering terms. The retailer has to keep track of them via paper or some internal note-taking system.
Placing a wholesale order online most likely requires the retailer to visit the brand’s website. It must visit each brand’s site separately to place an order.
For all of the store’s brands, the retailer is solely responsible for tracking and updating the sales rep’s name and contact information. The store may deal with more than 100 reps.
The retailer is solely responsible for updating its products, lifestyle images, collection images, and price lists.
The retailer can't track requests sent to brands and reps via a ticketing system. Most likely, the retailer uses email.
The retailer can't directly message brands. The retailer is not connected to any business friends. The retailer needs to visit the brand's site or know the brand’s email.
The retailer can share news on its website, but that news will not likely be seen. Brands, sales reps, interior designers, and market buildings most likely do not visit the retailer’s website. The retailer may share news via a social media platform like Facebook, but Facebook often charges businesses to share news.
The retailer pays hundreds of dollars a month for its stand-alone, isolated website. On top of this, it has to pay for staff to add products, and it has to pay for new features to be added. The retailer is responsible for security and ADA compliance.
An estimated 19% of retailers retain their Shopify software each year.
A low retention rate is often a sign of high complexity. Bridge's annual retailer retention rate of 92% vs. Shopify's 19% shows that Bridge demands less from retailers and delivers more.
Our processes are easier and more efficient.
Bridge supports local communities and tax collection. Taxes help pay for sidewalks, schools, clean water, and safety. The ‘taxes’ we don’t support are inefficiency and unnecessary complexity in running an online store. Let’s work together to skip paying the bad taxes so we can better collect the good ones.