When I flew home yesterday from Charleston, while most people were seeking relief from their sunburns and reminiscing about their vacations, I was delving into The Wall St. Journal’s profile on Tracy Britt Cool, an ex- Berkshire Hathaway star. Mrs. Cool’s new company Kanbrick invests in businesses with $10m - $50m in revenue. What does Mrs. Cool look for when investing in a company? People and moats.
At Bridge, we’re reading Jim Collins’ Beyond ...
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Businesses like Walmart, Disney, and Discovery are bundling services and adding the “+” suffix to denote them (e.g. Disney+, Discovery+, W+, etc.). In a recent article in RetailDive, we learn that Walmart is giving its customers free, six-month trial Spotify accounts. I think W+ bundling services is smart. Last week, I compared running a gym to offering software. I spoke about bundling services with things that people like to increase their usage, such as work ...
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Today’s Times shares that Amazon Prime members often spend twice as much compared to those that aren’t members. This led to me ponder: What if a first step to reducing Amazon’s monopolies is just canceling a $119/year ‘membership’? Prime may be Amazon’s strength—as well as its achilles. If we can find a way to undermine it, I believe one can save money and our communities.
Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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Amazon Prime, Grindr, and Instagram do not seem to have much in common with each other. But, a recent study by PCloud found that these apps are some of the biggest 'data burglars': they are downloading our data at an alarming rate.
Many brands and retailers in our industry promote Facebook, yet Facebook and its sister company Instagram are the leading thieves of personal data. It’s akin to them suggesting their friend sit next to a digital pick pocket.
This week, Amazon launched its online pharmacy targeting the 3.8 billion prescriptions filled in the U.S. each year. Shares of major pharmacy chains dropped about 10% on the news. Amazon honed this weapon in its Seattle lab and is eagerly unleashing it on retail chains and mom-and-pop pharmacies.
Something struck me while reading this news: Does Amazon remind you of Covid-19? The similarities:
Amazons kills many businesses in industries it touches. Pharmacies are now worried
Aesthetically pleasing to the eye, this simple sculptural form serves both as a graceful object as well as a purposeful candy dish.
Elegant wings and robust weight makes it a beautiful addition to any dining table or home décor.
Never needs polishing.
Excerpt:
According to the report, the cost of a 50-pack of disposable face masks jumped from about $4 on April 1st to $39.99 on August 16th. That’s a 900 percent increase. Toilet paper sold by other retailers for $6.89 sold on Amazon for nearly $37, Public Citizen says.
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Unfortunately, there are no federal laws against price gouging (only state laws) so Amazon would just face state penalties. Public Citizen is calling for a federal price gouging law.
News outlets like the Wall St. Journal have shared that Amazon is full of fake products, counterfeits, and listings with exaggerated prices. In today’s WSJ, Amazon shares it removed 1 million fake health products related to the Coronavirus. Amazon’s action supports the accusations that Amazon often fails when it comes to policing its marketplace. It’s rare ‘action’ is actually a sign of larger ‘inaction.’ While these Coronavirus products may have ...
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October 25, 2019
October 25, 2019
From which store would you shop, the one offering free 2-day shipping or the one charging $105 for standard delivery?
The first one, of course. Which leads us to the rules your store needs to follow:
Rule #1: Do NOT seek to break even on shipping Rule #2: Seek to LOSE money on shipping!
Most retailers share with me their fear about losing money on shipping. What ends up happening? They end up losing: the entire sale. What about that $1,000 Herend order? The store is less likely to get it because it'...
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August 29, 2019
August 29, 2019
Amazon and Chinese companies have teamed up to bypass Main Street and ship goods directly to doorsteps. This is hurting American manufacturing as well as local city governments. To accomplish this, they're misleading Americans by putting out press releases that cherry-pick statistics.
Follow these 3 steps to see the issue at hand:
1. In an Amazon press release last week, Amazon claimed:
"Independent third-party sellers – primarily small and medium-sized businesses – ...
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July 17, 2019
July 17, 2019
What is your abandoned cart rate? This and other factors arose in a shipping survey conducted by BigCommerce.
Some survey findings:
+ Fifty-eight percent stopped shopping certain retailers because of a negative shipping experience.
+ Amazon Prime has set a high bar with free two-day shipping. In the past 12 months, 84 percent of global survey respondents made an online purchase specifically because it offered free shipping, and half said they avoid shopping with retailers that don’t offer free ...
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July 15, 2019
July 15, 2019
Is offering a big sale in July a good idea? With the competition offering this, I don’t know that a store can afford not to. Today’s Times ponders this (theoretical?) question, which can be read here:
"Despite the Amazon hype, prices in Whole Foods’ 490 stores across the country — even after shoppers pony up cash for the Prime discount — come down by just $1.54 on a $400 basket of groceries, according to the report."
What time do your customers shop online? This week's L2 newsletter shares that 8 pm is prime time for online shopping. The problem: your store is likely closed.
How can you provide customer service to customers when your store is closed? That is worth investigating and investing in.
Your Bridge team may help. Bridge is considering offering stores an outsourced 'live chat' feature for their website that operates after hours. If a store subscribes to this service, its customers can ask questions ...
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February 28, 2018
February 28, 2018
What Is the Perfect Color Worth?
Inside the mysterious art - and big business - of color forecasting.
Last spring, a dozen people filtered into a sunny, whitewashed conference room on the seventh floor of the Royal College of Art, overlooking London's Hyde Park. Mostly Western Europeans from different precincts of the fashion industry, they had been called together by a British man named David Shah, editor and publisher of the "Pantone View Colour Planner." The book, issued each February and ...
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January 14, 2018
January 14, 2018
A friend of mine asked me about the buy local movement and young people. She wonders if young people (people under 40--gosh, I guess that excludes me?!) cared about the buy local 'movement.'
My response to her was that asking someone to buy local is sort of like asking someone to ignore the major principles of why people shop (aka ignore capitalism). The primary reasons we shop where we do is:
1. Selection. People want a wide variety of selection…aka: all the items you can find on Amazon.