Today’s WSJ shares that independent stores, including hardware stores, book shops, and pharmacies, have teamed up to stop Amazon’s bad practices. The group, called Small Business Rising, seeks to use anti-trust laws to prevent Amazon marketplace from selling its own goods—which compete with retailers using the platform. Amazon has been shown to use a retailer’s customer and sales data and bypass the retailer (it’s own customer) in order to make a bigger profit. ...
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FOR SALES REPS AND BRANDS:
E-commerce sales are up 40%. Are your stores ready? Most likely, not.
You can help them. The quickest, easiest, most cost efficient solution for them is a Bridge Store. Bridge will pay you $100 for each retailer that you sign up for a free Bridge Store.
Part of my job is to review registry software. I ensure that it works well for retailers, registrants, and gift-givers (family and friends). I also assess whether it offers good value (price vs results).
A retailer recently shared with me that it uses the service MyRegistry.com. I reviewed the retailer's site and how a customer would make a registry purchase via MyRegistry.com. For privacy purposes, I changed the name of the store in the screenshots shown.
FOR RETAILERS
Please join us for our new Bridge 101 webinar. We designed this training for new members. Existing members that want a refresher may also join us.
I'll take you through the Bridge platform and administrative settings.
I'll teach you how to:
Set up your Bridge Store.
Add products.
Add brands.
Setup taxes and shipping settings.
Navigate the important features needed to get your Bridge account up and running.
New E-mail Scam Targeting Invoices and ACH Payments
There is a new scam where hackers take over a brand’s email account and request payment via ACH. This financial scam recently happened to a brand that we know. Please note: Bridge has not been a victim of this scam. We are warning businesses to ensure it does not happen to our friends.
Here is how the scam works:
1. A hacker takes control of an employee’s email account such as their Microsoft email user ID and password. This is likely done via a...
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September 30, 2019
September 30, 2019
Social media (i.e. Facebook) is now the leading tool scammers use to successfully steal from people—beating e-mail, telephone, and websites.
Be wary of links leading to eBay and Craigslist, and stay away from bank and wire transfers.
Credit card may be the safest purchase option.
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September 23, 2019
September 23, 2019
The Barbara Stewart Interior's Design Team is excited to transition your home into the upcoming fall season. ? Call or e-mail us at 270-782-1747 or [email protected] to schedule a design appointment today.
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September 4, 2019
September 4, 2019
Help a business friend and we'll give you $50
How the program works: 1. Refer a retailer to Bridge. E-mail us the store’s name. We’ll do the rest of the work. E-mail: [email protected] 2. After the store is active 60 days, we'll send you a check for $50. :)
What the store receives: This reminded me: I'm happy to mail you $50 for referring a store.
For free, your stores can receive: 1. A Bridge account filled with professional product pictures and accurate prices. 2. Award-winning e-commerce and...
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July 21, 2019
July 21, 2019
I believe that offering greater online selection is increasingly important in retail.
Greater selection is important for many reasons including:
1. Giving shoppers more choices. More choices lead to more sales.
2. Helping stores be more competitive. Shoppers know that big online retailers like Amazon offer millions of products, and thereby millions of possible price points and features. Offering something similar is the natural route to get those orders back from Amazon.
3. Boosting a ...
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March 13, 2019
March 13, 2019
Gartner shares that most consumers start their purchase for a brand by using search. Search beats e-mail and social, which makes sense. If you wanted to buy brand X, wouldn't you just go to Google and search for "X"? Of course.
Which then leads us to this point: how well does your business rank for your brands? If a customer Googles brands that you sell, such as X, Y, and Z, where do you rank in Google?
Do you get too much spam e-mail? There are ways to reduce it automatically. One way is setup a 'rule' in your e-mail system to move spam messages to a spam folder.
Does your business have a cool e-mail signature? Let me know what service you used to create it. I've been playing with two services: 1. Hubspot 2. Wisestamp
Wisestamp is $6/month, or $72/year. That seems a bit steep for an email signature. I think the service should be $1/month. https://webapp.wisestamp.com/
I am writing to inform you that as of this week, our showroom on the 9th floor at 41 Madison has been closed for renovation. We are very excited to have a completely remodeled showroom that will re-open by the first week of April, 2017 - just in time for the Spring Table Top Show.
If there are any specific Pickard items you need to review or if you have a custom china project you need to discuss, please feel free to contact Cathy Enck in the Pickard China customer ...
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