Indie Stores Report Double-Digit Growth in 2017 by Sharing Products
Forty-two brick and mortar Main Street retailers that participated in Bridgeβs annual survey said their sales grew up to 50% for a brand by using Bridgeβs product-syncing service.
"I do about 20% more business a year by being a part of the Bridge network,β said Mary Beth Wood, owner of the Crystal Plate in Gainesville, Georgia, and a user of the Bridge software. "It gives me more time to sell ...
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June 22, 2017
June 22, 2017
The Dallas Market Center show is underway. We look forward to seeing pics of you and your showrooms on Chalkboard.
Brands and reps: If you have show specials please post them to your Promotions area. You can specify if a retailer must attend the show to receive the promotion. Here is the support article on how to post a Promotion:
Thanks to HFN and Allison Zisko for covering our Bridge Brand Conference ;)
Please find the article below:
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Bridge Gives Indie Retailers Tools to Compete with E-Commerce Giants Brand-supplied product info can boost Google search results
How can your business get more engagement on social media? Below are a few 'dos and don'ts'.
As a starting point, let's look at a recent Chalk by a retailer in Texas. (Shown on the left). First, what a great sale! The issue: the text is appearing small, a bit hard to read, and wouldn't it be nice to see the gift item mentioned.
Let's fix this. On the right, you can see our version. We updated this Chalk to perform better in social media:
1. We made the image square. This allows it to appear ...
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February 17, 2017
February 17, 2017
Today, Shopify emailed me asking me to choose one of its paid plans. My free trial with it is expiring. As you may recall, last week I setup an online store to check out the service in order to compare it to Bridge. (Please read my review of Shopify here.)
What I find interesting is that most services offer a free account. A free account often lets you enter a limited amount of products. Shopify does not offer a free account. It offers a free 14-day trial. Thereafter, plans start at $29/month.
A special thanks to Matt Hullfish at Casafina. He penned this invitation below to Bridge's upcoming webinar for sales reps. Matt summed up the issues facing our retail industry better than we could:
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Casafina Sales Reps:
Independent brick and mortar stores that do not have an effective e-commerce website that is easy to manage will struggle to survive. Most will not make it with brick and mortar sales alone. Bridge is an excellent option for an independent store owner to capture e...
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July 13, 2016
July 13, 2016
Why comment on Chalks and products? Answer: it boosts sales. When you have a conversation about products, it educates the consumer AND adds personality to the product. In the example shown, you can see a conversation that elicited the fact that Ruffoni items have a lifetime warranty.
In addition, comments increase an item's Google ranking.
Your goal: encourage your staff (and customers) to comment on your Chalks.
Also, if you have not already, add your picture to your staff listing. Reason: this ...
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April 25, 2016
April 25, 2016
A big-time publisher of news is launching a Facebook-only tech news service. This shows how important it is to A) connect via social networks, and B) share news. Post to your Chalkboard daily. Then you can easily share to your other social media accounts like Facebook.
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February 17, 2016
February 17, 2016
Dear Retailers,
My name is Diane Seidle I have been hired by Jason Solarek of Bridge Catalog to help you make the most of Bridge's services. I am former product distributor, sales rep, retail sales person and former Madison Avenue marketing guru. I write the column in Tableware Today called Selling the Table, about digital marketing. But enough about me. What is it that you need?
It is my mission to see your sales improve in 2016 by utilizing the Bridge services available to you. First, I am going...
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1. The article's headline is obviously hyperbole meant to catch your attention. I guess the future of journalism is exaggerated headlines!
2. I replied to Michael that the author is likely wrong about stores streamlining their spaces.
Studies have shown that customers SAY they want streamlined stores, but rather prefer and buy more in cluttered stores. as an result, Walmart stores with more clutter sell more. ...
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December 2, 2015
December 2, 2015
A word of advice to retailers that lament losing $3 on shipping charges: let's instead celebrate getting the order. :) Most stores offer free shipping on all items (per my article here ) The goal is to get the sale and eat the shipping cost. If you can charge anything for shipping, consider yourself lucky. Let's consider this example: For a $100 item, a customer pays the retailer $10 to ship the item and it's costing the retailer $13 to ship it. The retailer may think it lost $3, but in ...
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November 23, 2015
November 23, 2015
Wish to add a video to your home page or news page? It's easy.
First, you'll want to load your video to YouTube.com. Then, follow these steps: 1. Go to your video on your YouTube page. 2. Below the video, click on "Share." 3. From the Share choices, click on "Embed." 4. Copy that code and paste it into your Chalkboardβs news entry field. Enter some keywords. 5. Click the blue "Chalk" button to publish your video.
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October 6, 2015
October 6, 2015
Today's WSJ interviews a major PR company about social media trends for business. The PR exec promotes the value of using social media for B-2-B. Bridge's social media tool Chalkboard allows business partners to share news with each other and with each others' consumers - thereby speeding news to end consumers.
The article's take away is that social media requires planning - just like any form of business.
Brochure websites vs. E-commerce websites Squarespace & Wordpress vs. Bridge & Shopify
Carol Schroeder, a store owner who pens a nice blog about retail, reviews website design services in her post this week. Carol mostly covers 'brochure style' website design tools. Brochure sites are characterized by attractive pictures and often a lack of functionality. My hope here is to stress how different brochure websites are from online stores. It's also to share my view that brochure sites are good for ...
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We'd like to share these same sentiments about Chalks made by our members :)
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June 30, 2015
June 30, 2015
A retailer wrote me today asking how to use Chalkboard. Please find our Q & A below:
Retailer: We haven't taken advantage of using our Chalkboard feature and think it would be great. Could you let me know what the best way to use it is?
Bridge: We recommend using Chalkboard the same way as you use Facebook. It's for public and private use. In your business' case, it will most likely be used to share public information with the public. You want to use Chalkboard over Facebook for a few reason: + ...
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June 17, 2015
June 17, 2015
New feature: you can now load PDFs to your Chalkboard.
Have you ever wanted to shares news and include a PDF file? Now it's easier and quicker. Just Chalk your news, and then load your PDF. The file will show up below your Chalk.
This is a feature that not even Facebook allows. Facebook does not allow you to load PDFs to your Newsfeed. Bridge does. :)
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We're happy that Tableware Today asked Bridge founder Jason Solarek to share his thoughts about e-commerce. In this month's Last Word column, you can read about e-commerce trends that independent, Main Street stores are facing. Jason also shares some potential solutions.
Full article:
THE BRIDGE TO MAIN STREET
A Connecticut retailer recently told me that it lost a bride's registry worth $10,000. The bride reviewed the store's outdated website and online product offering and wasn't ...
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