I was happy to see Tableware Today magazine share our experiences and lessons regarding the power of free shipping.
You're invited to read the article below:
.........................
THE LAST WORD
FREE SHIPPING PAYS OFF
by JASON SOLAREK
Most indie stores don’t have the technical ability or people power to track pricing and offer discounts like free shipping. Indie stores need this information or they’ll be left behind. This information can make a difference: in ...
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When we talk about prices, there are two prices that are important:
The price that we charge clients.
The price our clients charge their customers.
We normally talk about the former, aka how our prices compare with other competitors, like Shopify or wholesale services like Faire.
Of increasing importance to us is what our retailers charge their customers. Walmart recently announced that it was taking brands to account and pressuring them to keep ...
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Zola is offering 20% off. Are you? To be competitive, you may have to discount products like Zola.
Your Bridge Store allows you to put items on sale, as well as offer coupon and discount codes.
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October 1, 2018
October 1, 2018
Diane Seidle, a Bridge coach, pens a column about Amazon in this month’s Tableware Today. The article shares that premium brands’ products are being severely discounted—meaning a slim margin is being made by the seller. I’ll be the first to admit that some margin is better than losing an order to a competitor and thereby getting no margin, but there is the line between competition and just making a subsistence living. A subsistence living is not humane, it’s stressful, bad for supporting your ...
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October 1, 2017
October 1, 2017
Today's WSJ shares that Wal-mart and Jet.com are moving towards more private labels. They also share the Jet.com is reducing its discounting emphasis and adding new lines like bedding.
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August 8, 2017
August 8, 2017
How does your brand fight back against the discounting and gray marketers on Amazon.com? Take some inspiration from today's WSJ.
Luxotica is enforcing MAP prices and more brands are drop shipping.
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March 1, 2017
March 1, 2017
How competitive are your prices? As if the market isn't competitive enough, Target reminds us in today's WSJ that low prices matter. How are you keeping up with prices on Amazon? Amazon is constantly sending bots to crawl our retailers' sites and check their prices in order to beat them. (We occasionally stop these bots because they slow down the server by making too many requests to it.) How are your brands handling discounting by Amazon? These are questions you want to ask to stay in business...
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January 23, 2012
January 23, 2012
'Showrooming' hurts small - and big - businesses with physical stores.
A brand asked me today a few questions about the Bridge. My response is below.
How will the brand make more money with the Bridge? 1) A brand makes money by making more online sales via retailers' websites. Instead of a retailer having few items from a brand for sale on its site, the retailer will have 100s or 1,000s. The home goods industry is very reliant on bridal and gift registries. If a brand is not on a retailer's website, it's not on the bridal registry, and sales ...
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February 10, 2010
February 10, 2010
Policing prices to support the Bridge
There was an article in the New York Times this week about price setting by brands/manufacturers, and retailers seeking ways to get around this. Overall, brands being allowed to set prices is now often accepted. This is in the Bridge's favor since the Bridge sets prices, and rewards retailers for this by by giving them all the product pictures and prices. It's a win-win.
With that said, the Bridge works best when brands police discounting. Why? We don't want ...
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December 28, 2009
December 28, 2009
Wall St. Journal: As Stores Sputter, Sales Sizzle Online
As Stores Sputter, Sales Sizzle Online Dec. 15 Sets Record for Web-Site Revenue; Sears, Macy's,Other Big Retailers Lure Internet Shoppers By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
A holiday season of Web price wars and aggressive online promotions by store-based retailers is leaving e-commerce a larger force in American retail.
While sales conducted at brick-and mortar stores are about flat this season compared with 2008, online retailing grew 4% from the ...
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October 23, 2008
October 23, 2008
Manufacturers and retailers seem to be able to set minimum prices (MAP / MSRP)
An article in today's Wall St. Journal sheds light on home goods manufacturers' ability to fight discounting.
Excerpt: Blocking discounting used to be clearly an anticompetitive practice, but a Supreme Court ruling last year changed things. The court said it wasn't illegal for manufacturers and retailers to agree to minimum prices, but that such agreements must be examined case by case for possible antitrust violations. ...
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August 18, 2008
August 18, 2008
Price Fixing, MSRP, and the Tableware Market
Tableware manufacturers often want to set retail prices, but are afraid of being accused of price fixing. According to the article below from today's Wall St. Journal, due to a court decision last year manufacturers now are much more likely to be able to set prices. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts about the article below. (The story appears on the front page, if you'd like read the print version.)
The retailer LCR Collection called me today and expressed its concern that many customers request discounts. This discount is often 10%, and the store offered an idea to protect the retailer's margin: instead of retailers charging 100% of wholesale, they should charge 120%. In other words, a $50 wholesale product would not retail for $100 but instead be $110. This would allow the retailer 'space' to discount the item by 10%, and keep their margin.