The WSJ covers how Amazon is growing its business at the cost of others.
Article highlights:
Amazon's leading selling points are endless selection and the lowest prices.
Amazon is so competitive that it often undertakes potentially unethical routes to grab more market share.
Amazon often takes a 30% commission on orders for third-party sellers. Due to this fee, many businesses prefer to receive orders on their own website which may be powered by Shopify (...or
FedEx bought a ShopRunner, and online shipping platform that had already received $115 in venture-capital backing and an investment from UPS last year, shares RetailDive.
One doesn't shop on ShopRunner, rather one shops on other stores and looks for the ShopRunner logo when checking out. (Learn more about how it works here: https://www.shoprunner.com/how-it-works .)
A missing component for FedEx and UPS remains an e-commerce platform, such as Shopify, Big Cartel, ...
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Yiren Lu shares her experience of setting up a Shopify store in the New York Times magazine. Ms. Lu reports the setup process was easy, but her online Shopify store failed because it lacked marketing, aka eyeballs and orders. In her next article, I hope Ms. Lu tries Bridge. Bridge Store helps members fill the marketing component that Shopify is missing. When a store joins Bridge, Bridge instantly points hundreds of links to the store from other Bridge members, which Google sees and ...
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This drawing shows how Bridge's design makes it quicker to administer your online business. Other platforms like Shopify have two 'sides': a back-end that clients use to manage their site and a front-end that shoppers experience. Bridge takes a different approach: we try to make the front-end and the back-end very similar. We believe they should look similar to make the experience consistent and easy to navigate. When a member is logged in as an administrator, we output edit links where needed.
...
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While waiting for breakfast, I noticed this ‘Boycott Amazon’ sticker. I think that getting customers to stop something—or start something—is a tough practice. There are fields of science (psychology) and marketing (branding) dedicated to this. Is it easier to get someone to start or stop (boycott) something?
I think that offering a solution (start something) is easier.
I recommend that stores encourage customers to choose them over Amazon because the ...
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These days everyone wants to be a ‘digital company,’ but truth be told the heart of a digital company often lies in analog, traditional mediums like: paper sketches, face-to-face conversations, and inspiration from window shopping.
As an example of this, shown here is my stretch of the home goods industry that I’m converting to a digital graphic. While we’ll eventually view the finished chart via pixels, this idea was originally born of good ol’ ...
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VIETRI AND BRIDGE PARTNER TO HELP INDEPENDENT STORES
Retailers Can Receive $150 For Joining Bridge Network
July 15, 2020
NEW YORK, NY – VIETRI, known as the premium importer of luxury tabletop goods from Italy, has launched a new program to help its independent specialty retailers online and in-store. VIETRI has agreed to offer its authorized retailers a credit of $150 towards future purchases by opening a free account with the e-commerce community ...
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When a business offers a website, it's a costly venture. A business, such as an indie store, brand, or sales rep group, will build the site and then have to maintain it. On a day-to-day basis, it has to ensure the pages load quickly. This often requires the business use image-optimization software to reduce the page size and a CDN (content delivery network) to get the content closer to the visitor's geographic location. These costs add up.
Bridge and Shopify both bundle many services under a ...
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March 2, 2020
March 2, 2020
Walmart follows Shopify and other players in to third-party fulfillment, shares RetailDive.
Shopify's Chief Operating Office said on CNBC last week:
“While other companies are trying to build empires, we are arming the rebels...”
That's a clever quote that could be applied to our retailer base. Bridge is helping hundreds of retail 'rebels' fight back against the hegemony of Amazon. Bridge gives indie stores and brands the software tools they need to connect, sell, and grow.
Today is President's Day, and rebels fighting a big empire is fitting. Let the ...
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Are websites a waste? I'll thank they are and I'll explain. But first, it's important to note that websites are different from platforms. A website is something for which your business is solely responsible. A platform is a digital service to which you subscribe that you are not solely responsible. You may add content and pictures, etc. but you do not manage the technical aspects. You likely use platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and Airbnb.
How can you prepare for Black Friday / Cyber Monday? Here's a checklist:
1. 'Seed the sale' by telling customers to expect deals. "Promote sales, promote sales, promote sales," said Sucharita Kodali, principal analyst of e-business and channel strategy at Forrester. "It's the number one thing that shoppers look for during the holidays." (Source: Retail Dive)
You can do this via posts on Bridge and social media.
2. Craft an irresistible offer.
3. Organize your upcoming sales / discounts. You can do ...
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I went into a small shop in New York City yesterday and admired all their nice tableware. It offered mugs, cups, plates, drinking glasses, and vases—all items that are great for gift registries.
The store was empty. I thought it may be a good time ask the store manager if the store offered an online registry. He replied "yes." I was surprised because there was no signage in the store that said it offered a gift registry. I shared with him what Bridge is and explained that we...
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I developed Bridge Network, an e-commerce platform, that is not included in this article. Here are some things I have learned over the last 20 years of e-commerce development:
1. The articleβs ranking criteria includes themes and templates. I believe you don't need an assortment of templates to have a functioning (or successful) e-commerce site. Just look at ...
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March 28, 2019
March 28, 2019
I was going to recommened reading this Shopify article about converting website visitors to shoppers but then I realized what a rip off Shopify is.
In the screen shot shown, we see Shopify promote nine apps. The apps use the 'freemium' model where you try it for free, then often quickly get stuck paying. In sum, Shopify is nickel and dime-ing users.
When you use Shopify, it's like going to Disneyland and paying for each ride separately. You think that the theme park will be fun but by the time ...
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March 8, 2019
March 8, 2019
Mark Hayes shares 67 website performance indicators:
Shopify, a fellow e-commerce platform, has a blog that shares business tips. Braveen Kumar recently shared some tips about getting traffic in the first 30 days of setting up a website, including:
1. Email your friends and family a discount/coupon. But note: don't spam people. Only send high-quality, unique content, and send it sparingly.
2. List your URL everywhere.
3. Join online communities/groups to share your business story.
Reviews impact 10% of your Google ranking. This raises the question: what service can you use to get more reviews? Bridge is helping retailers get 20X the numbers of reviews that Facebook does. We are beating theknot.com by 100X.
Google your business name and the word "reviews." Compare your Bridge site's number of reviews to what Facebook, theknot.com and Yelp offer.
Retailers using Bridge are noticing that their Bridge is becoming the #1 source for reviews--and that it's helping boost their ...
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February 11, 2018
February 11, 2018
A game-changing service often wins in two out of three areas: - Price - Quality - Time
Historically, when you adjust one of these variables, you negatively affect one of the others. For example, if you want a project to be done faster, you either reduce the quality or increase the price. When you want something cheaper, you often get it slower or reduce the quality.
A revolutionary service will change two or more of these factors with no noticeable impact on the other factors. For example, Uber ...
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