The Atlantic shares how Chinese factories have found a new way around U.S. retailers and into our homes: Chinese apps. SHEIN and other Chinese apps are bypassing Amazon to be a new leader in Chinese goods. In addition to Amazon, Target, Walmart, and indie shops now have a new group of digital competitors embedded in customers’ pockets.
Except from The Atlantic article:
MATERIAL WORLD
IS THIS HOW AMAZON ENDS?
An open embrace of cheap foreign products has helped ...
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Staff at manor department stores like Saks are finding success with Instagram and social media. The Information shares this:
……….
Tyler Bell was encouraging all her clients to “tag your bag.” Every time Bell, a Saks Fifth Avenue stylist in Troy, Mich., closed a sale, she asked the buyer to show off their purchase on Instagram and tag her account, @tyler.saks. Bell posts Saks inventory multiple times a day on Instagram Stories. Her 27,000 followers will...
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A recent study conducted by Jungle Scout reports that many consumers prefer to support small and local businesses for their holiday shopping. 20% reported they will buy holiday gifts from indie stores, up from 10% last year. The report ranks independent retailers in 4th place for in-store shopping, surpassing Costco, Walgreen's Best Buy, Sam's Club, Macy's and Home Depot.
The article shares 53% of consumers bought online from independent stores on Small Business Saturday as reported by ...
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I recently saw a car with the license plate: WHYWRK. I had a sad feeling for the driver, who perhaps wasn’t as lucky as I to have the best job in the world – getting paid to shop for the most beautiful goods in the world – which I am now retiring from. After 40+ years as a buyer of tabletop and gifts in Buffalo, I have the opportunity to put the dishes away, polish the flatware, and store the stemware. As a small specialty store, we’ve been through our share of ups and ...
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Kate Spade New York tableware and accessories has for two decades held a singular spot on retail shelves and on customers’ tables thanks to a timeless charm and chic stylings. Even after 20 years, the fun, fresh, playfully sophisticated, and refreshingly original collections from Lenox occupy a unique niche in the tableware pantheon.
Kate Spade’s contribution to fashion cannot be understated. She became synonymous with fashionistas everywhere when she started her fashion ...
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According to a recent RetailDive report, online and mobile purchases for Black Friday sales were the strongest, with smartphone sales leading at 54% of online sales. The article states consumers spent a record $9.8 billion online on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe Analytics. That’s up 7.5% from last year.
Industry experts forecast that consumer spending will be up 2-3% year over year. The National Retail Federation projects 3-4% year over year. Consumers are cautious about ...
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How to view top retailers, brands, and products to help find ways to grow your registry business.
November 17, 2023
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: We've added a new Leaderboard page to your account. This page shares top-performing retailers, brands, and products.
The Leaderboard page shares the following information related to gift registry sales:
Nur Boutique, an indie store in California, signed up for a free account last week. The store used the Brand Syncing Service to send Sync requests to top brands.
Less than a week later, Nur Boutique is now synced with 4 brands: Bugatti Italy, Pampa Bay, Rosenthal, and Versace by Rosenthal.
By Syncing, the store has 3,326 products listed on its Online Store.
When customers visit the site, they also see a news page with posts shared by the store's synced brands.
How restaurants, hotels, and tableware brands are using loyalty programs--and what indie stores can learn from this.
October 11, 2023
Perk-y
I recently read about a new loyalty program and wondered what we could learn from it. The founder of Eater and Resy, Ben Leventhal, has started Blackbird, a loyalty program service designed for indie restaurants, reports The New York Times (Read the article). Using the Blackbird app, a diner receives a perk for eating at a restaurant. The retailer sets tiers for which the user qualifies for the perk. For example, a restaurant, Nat’s on Bank in New York City, gives tier 1 customers ...
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I got to thinking about the generational make-up of today's workforce when I realized all the folks I interviewed in the current issue are well-experienced, older workers with decades of expertise and know-how, who are still creating and innovating with alacrity. (Yours truly included.)
There was a time when you entered the labor force, worked until a certain age, and retired. Now, more and more people are working into their golden years, a trend that's expected to continue fueled by aging ...
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H Mercantile, an indie store in Louisiana, signed up last week for a free account.
The store owner heard about the service from their Ivystone sales rep and signed up online.
In just a few minutes, the store used the Brand Syncing Service to Sync with Casafina. It instantly had data for 955 products to create an online store and gift registry filled for free.
The owner saved $1,000+ in labor on adding products to a website.
We're happy to share that we've reached a new milestone: more than 1,300 indie retailers use our Online Store. As a reference, in 2015 just 100 stores used the platform.
Thank you to all our retailers and brand partners for making this growth and success possible.
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How limited resources can motivate teams to accomplish goals and breed solutions.
September 3, 2023
India last month joined three other countries in the exclusive club that has put a craft on the moon. What’s unique about India’s accomplishment is that it did this at a fraction of what the U.S. spends on space exploration, shares Ben Cohen in The Wall St. Journal. While the U.S.’s NASA program has a $24b budget, India’s ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) budget is just $1.3b. India, which started its space program in 1963, is able to do more with less because of ...
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How to view information about a registry on one page.
August 31, 2023
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: We've made it easier for you and your registrants to view an overview of a registry. There is now a new Registry Overview page that displays information about a registry at a glance.
Previously, you or your registrant would need to visit different registry-related pages to view many of these links. This feature reduces the number of clicks needed to access pages.
The Registry Overview page displays the following information...
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“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”
~ Walt Disney
I read this quote in ‘Show Your Work’ and wondered how it applied to our mission here at Shop Local. I asked my team and they submitted their interpretations. One colleague even used an AI tool.
Team Submissions:
“We don't make Shop Local to make money, we make money to sustain Indie Stores.”
~ Jim
"We didn't make this software just to ...
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We place the year on the back of the shirt in the style of a sports jersey. The sports reference is a nod to us playing on the same team together to help indie stores.
(We didn’t do a 2020 t-shirt. Oops. Not many businesses wanted to commemorate the year of the pandemic.)
Thank you, Bridge team, for a successful 2023 ;)
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I chuckled when I was asked to author this column, as I have been known to have the last word from time to time. As I prepare to leave the industry that has given me so much (I eagerly accepted the opportunity to work in the gift and home area in 1986), I can vividly recall the excitement I felt when I first entered the creative space that we get to live and work in every day. I have been exposed to scores of creative people; I met and worked with artists and buyers who were inspired and ...
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EMON MAASHO, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF ORREFORS, NORTH AMERICA, is representative of the exciting trajectory in this 125-year operation. The über-exec joined the New Wave Group in 2013, a time when Orrefors and Kosta Boda (OKB) were underperforming assets in the portfolio. "Our crystal brands are national treasures and a part of Swedish history," Maasho affirms. And he wanted a front row seat in their revitalization. Maasho was placed in charge of the new hotel and restaurant division ...
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