In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon, who plays a handsome MIT janitor moonlighting as a math savant (can one say, “Hollywood career vehicle”?), woos a young lady (played by the actress Minnie Driver) by outmaneuvering a few competing, obnoxious cads. When Damon’s character gets the girl's telephone number, he proudly shows it to the other guys and boasts, with his South Boston access, “How 'bout ‘dem apples?” I imagine Tim Cook imitating this...
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On a daily basis, Bridge helps retailers, brands, and reps: stay in business. We help them more easily and cost effectively run their businesses. Most of our merchants are receiving a record number of online orders. The result: our clients have more money to keep going and even prosper.
This is important because we're not out of the woods yet. In 2021, more store closings are predicted, shares Coresight. Note: these are just estimates, and much like the failed prediction of a ...
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Coronavirus has resulted in a national shutdown, with many companies shifting to having at least some employees permanently working from home. People ended up spending most of their days at home during the week and, having nowhere to go due to the shutdown, on the weekends. Having a more intimate relationship with their domiciles, appears to have encouraged people to have an increased interest in decorating the place where they're now spending most of their time.
There is a general feeling among the public that Amazon is a ruthless behemoth. A survey conducted by CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey showed that 59% of the public think Amazon is bad for business. "This represents a significant shift from just two years ago, when opinion was nearly split between those saying Amazon is bad for small businesses (37%) and those saying it’s good (33%)."
One of the many reasons Amazon is viewed this way is because of ...
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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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November 16, 2019
November 16, 2019
Facebook removed 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September, more than twice as many as last year, shares CNBC.
One may ask: how many fake Facebook accounts still exist?
Many social media platforms are full of fake users and scammers.
Bridge only allows real people to sign up for its platform. We assess each sign up and only allow authenticated businesses and their staff to join. Since we don't rely on advertising revenue, we don't need to allow fake accounts to inflate our user base. ...
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September 26, 2019
September 26, 2019
CNBC shares that "by the end of this year, 12,000 stores are projected to close, and Amazon stands to benefit."
Bridge's Product Share page echoes this prediction and attributes it to how hard data is to deal with:
"In the last 20 years, there has been little change in how stores add items to their website....This has produced a clear winner: Amazon. Amazon has cornered 47% of the e-commerce market by adopting different techniques and business models to add hundreds of millions of items to its ...
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September 14, 2019
September 14, 2019
Think that e-commerce-only stores have it made? Guess again. Everlane's CEO says that online-only stores often lose money, and that omni-channel is the sweet spot. See the interview and article:
“Wayfair reports it spent $196 each on its 3.6 million new customers this year. Customer acquisition costs have an adverse effect on the company's bottom line.” ~ CNBC
I looked up the above information after reading in today’s WSJ that Wayfair reported an increase in active users to 15 million—but it’s still spending amost $200 to acquire each new customer. Wayfair, which has negative cash flow (debt?) of $137m, appears to be open to exiting its predicament by selling itself to a larger retail ...
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January 31, 2019
January 31, 2019
There is a 'Cold War' battle going on between Amazon and Walmart, if you haven't noticed. Both are building platforms that soak up every other business and its products into their respective ecosystems. Walmart is late to the game, but its been on a binge recently buying Art.com and now its partnered with a sport apparel company Fanatics.
As a reference, Facebook, Instagram, and Bridge are all platforms.
What platforms are you on? What is your strategy to chart this battle? Are you a Walmart or...
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