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  1. News from Bridge
  2. News from Members
  3. Events
  4. Press
  5. Dollars & Sense
  6. Updates
  7. Training Calendar
  8. Training Videos
  9. Jobs at Bridge
+ Bridge in the News - Bridge in the News

261 Results:

September 21, 2023 Shop Local Merchants Ranks Higher than MyRegistry.com and Shopify Merchants
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Shop Local Merchants Ranks Higher than MyRegistry.com and Shopify Merchants
September 21, 2023
We recently conducted a study to review Google search results for wedding registry purchasing. In the results for 32 states in which we have clients, Shop Local stores ranked on page 1 of Google ahead of national chains and other registry services, which often have larger customer bases and bigger website budgets.

When conducting the search for "wedding registry [state name]", many Shop Local stores beat MyRegistry.com and Shopify apps, like Gift Reggie.

Search Results
  • Number
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September 19, 2023 Standards Matter
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Standards Matter
September 19, 2023
Google, Amazon, and an array of home appliance companies are teaming up to make it easier for you to dim your home’s lights and lock your front doors. They are adopting a standard called Matter that allows devices to communicate and work together, shares The Wall St. Journal. This allows a giant like Amazon, creator of Alexa devices and Ring doorbells, and Tuo, a small home device tech creator, to use the same platform yet keep their internal, proprietary code base. This standard is like a...
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September 6, 2023 Shop Local Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 64% of States
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Shop Local Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 64% of States
September 6, 2023
NEW YORK, NY, Sept. 06, 2023 – Shop Local, an e-commerce platform, reported that it's helping indie stores rank on page one of Google in 64% of states for wedding gift purchases. The findings are based on a recent study that Shop Local conducted regarding wedding registry purchasing. 

Study Findings:
  • For 32 state searches, Shop Local Stores appeared on page one of Google. This represents 64% of all states.  When just calculating the states in which Shop Local has
...
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July 22, 2023 Pass the Apps 🍡
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Pass the Apps 🍡
July 22, 2023
Threads, a new Twitter-like service from Meta, the owner of Instagram, launched this month and almost immediately attracted 40m active daily users. The service’s growth has since stalled and now has just over 10m daily users, but that is still commendable.  The Wall Street Journal shared that this impressive launch was largely possible because Meta used its built-in network of one billion Instagram users. This user base helped it overcome the “cold start” problem of ...
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July 11, 2023 We Support Small Businesses
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We Support Small Businesses
July 11, 2023
Amazon Prime Day is here, but we know how important it is to shop and support local.

At Shop Local, we support local businesses today and every day, so it's nice to see big companies, like Google, doing the same. 

Google Small Business took to its Facebook page to make a post showing its support for small businesses on Prime Day.

.................
View the post here:
https://www.facebook.com/GoogleSmallBiz
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July 9, 2023 Brands cutting out stores
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Brands cutting out stores
July 9, 2023
We’ve been tracking brands that try to bypass stores, from Nike to some tabletop brands that will go unnamed. While Nike has backtracked from cutting out stores, Levi’s continues on the path shares this weekend’s The Wall St. Journal.  

The last fifteen years have been marked by brands investing in their websites, sucking up customers via Facebook and Google ads, and bypassing their stores.   View Post
May 26, 2023 Data, Filters, and Search Walk Into a Soundbar
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Data, Filters, and Search Walk Into a Soundbar
May 26, 2023
Apple announced last month that it's launching a new classical music app. What’s novel about the Apple Music Classical app is how it lets music fans more easily search thousands of variations of the same song. For example, let’s say you want to find a Johann Sebastian Bach song. Over the past 300 years, many musicians have done ‘covers’ of his works, and there are variations by conductor, music, year, etc., thereby producing thousands of variations. Existing software ...
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January 31, 2023 Networks: Let's Tango 💃đŸŊđŸ•ēđŸŧ
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Networks: Let's Tango 💃đŸŊđŸ•ēđŸŧ
January 31, 2023
It takes a lot of people to build a bridge, but just two to tango. This applies to the analog world as well as the digital one. In the digital space, I'm using tango to refer to messaging between two people. I believe messaging is a service we can add to our offering to diversify how our company Shop Local grows.

Different Networks Require a Different Number of Users in a Group
Andrew Chen in The Cold Start Problem states that a key difference among network models is the required minimum ...
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January 26, 2023 Zola: A Rotten Gift to Indie Stores?
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Zola: A Rotten Gift to Indie Stores?
January 26, 2023
Our retailers recently told us that customers are calling and asking about non-existent brides, and brides are asking about non-existent registry gift lists (e.g. wedding registry lists, baby lists).

We investigated the issues and below is what we found. 

What is Happening:
We found that many of these purchases are coming from registrants that open a ‘universal registry’ on websites such as Zola or MyRegistry. These universal registry services allow the registrant to add ...
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January 24, 2023 MyRegistry and Zola Are Confusing Merchants--and Sometimes Taking Their Orders
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MyRegistry and Zola Are Confusing Merchants--and Sometimes Taking Their Orders
January 24, 2023
Our retailers recently told us that they were confused by strange registry orders. The stores are receiving gift registry orders on their sites but the retailer does not have a registry for the gift recipient at its store. Customers are calling and asking about non-existent brides, and brides are asking about non-existent registry gift lists (e.g. wedding registry lists, baby lists).

We investigated the issues and below is what we found. 

What is Happening:
We found that many of...
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December 15, 2022 Next Generation ⏊ī¸
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Next Generation ⏊ī¸
December 15, 2022
When we brainstorm about making Bridge better, we want to turn over every stone. We explore many avenues, from increasing collaboration to lowering product prices to enhancing marketing. What if an improvement was right in front of us—constant to all of these concepts? Regardless of what feature we offer, there is one constant: navigation. Navigation is fundamental to allowing members to easily find what they need—and discover what they didn’t know they needed. 

If...
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December 1, 2022 The Price is Right 🛒
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The Price is Right 🛒
December 1, 2022
When we talk about prices, there are two prices that are important: 
  • The price that we charge clients.
  • The price our clients charge their customers. 

We normally talk about the former, aka how our prices compare with other competitors, like Shopify or wholesale services like Faire. 

Of increasing importance to us is what our retailers charge their customers.  Walmart recently announced that it was taking brands to account and pressuring them to keep ...
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November 2, 2022 New Feature: More Easily Invite Your Brands
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New Feature: More Easily Invite Your Brands
November 2, 2022
Your Bridge now makes it easier for you to connect with and sell your brands’ products. We have added a new page to invite brands to sync products.  This page significantly reduces the number of steps that your store takes to invite a brand.  

There is no charge for a member to send sync invites or sync products with a brand. Product Syncing is free for retailers, sales reps, trade marts, and interior designers.  Participating brands pay for the service. 
 ...
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October 24, 2022 Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
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Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
October 24, 2022
NEW YORK, NY, Oct. 24, 2022 – Bridge, an e-commerce community, reported that it's helping indie stores rank on page one of Google in 76% of states for wedding gift purchases. The findings are based on a recent study that Bridge conducted regarding wedding registry purchasing. 

Study Findings:
  • For 38 state searches, Bridge Stores appeared on page one of Google. This represents 76% of all states.  When just calculating the states in which Bridge has clients (48),
...
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October 12, 2022 Search Party đŸ”Ļ
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Search Party đŸ”Ļ
October 12, 2022
Google is often considered the first stop when searching for information. Looking for a product? You'll likely head to Amazon.com, where due to its 350m product listings, 25% of purchases reportedly start. Facebook will be your go-to for finding friends and family due to its 2b profiles of people.  Airbnb lets you search 5.6m places to stay.  These businesses are likely your choice because people want a massive selection when conducting a search.  Many of the world's most ...
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October 10, 2022 In 35 States, Stores Using Bridge Rank on Page 1 of Google
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In 35 States, Stores Using Bridge Rank on Page 1 of Google
October 10, 2022
In 35 states, Bridge Stores appeared on page one of Google when doing a wedding registry related search.  In many states, Bridge Stores dominated the results. For example, for Georgia and South Carolina searches Bridge Stores claimed six spots on Google's first page. 

Study Details: 
  • We Googled "gift registry" and the state’s name. 
  • We researched results for 48 states. (Bridge has clients in 48 states; the only states that don
...
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October 8, 2022 Winners Quit đŸšĒ🏆
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Winners Quit đŸšĒ🏆
October 8, 2022
In her new book ‘Quit,' Annie Duke shares that the best poker players only play 25% of the hands they are dealt, whereas others play 50%. Ms. Duke talks with Stewart Butterfield, the founder of a few startups, most recently Slack (which is an acronym, which I didn’t know). Slack wouldn’t have been born if Mr. Butterfield didn’t drop a video game company to start Slack. Likewise for Twitter which was born out of the failed blogging company Odeo. Ms. Duke's lesson: winners ...
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September 28, 2022 Tip: Reply to Reviews To Help Your Business
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Tip: Reply to Reviews To Help Your Business
September 28, 2022
We have a tip to help your business. You can easily boost the number of reviews your business receives on your Bridge.

Steps:
  1. When a customer leaves a review on your Bridge Store’s Review page, leverage this to get even more reviews. Reply to the review.
  2. Write a reply that acknowledges the customer's specific response. 

As an example, Goldsmith Cardel replies to every review left on its Bridge site.  Please see the example screenshots. 

Benefits of this ...
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August 26, 2022 Click Hear 🎧
Click Hear 🎧
August 26, 2022
Whenever I visit my 76-year-old mom in Myrtle Beach, SC, she picks me up and the oldies station is playing in her car. I’ve tried changing that dial, and one has a better chance of outmaneuvering tennis star Daniil Medvedev. I imagine the oldies music brings her back to her youth. I read a study that people’s favorite song is often when they were 17 years old.  That’s right: the 'best songs’ may not be the best songs but rather simply be what you heard in ...
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August 14, 2022 New Feature: More Easily Manage Registry Bonuses
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New Feature: More Easily Manage Registry Bonuses
August 14, 2022
Your Bridge has a new feature. You can now more easily manage your gift registry bonuses.

Background:
Your Bridge Store's Gift Registry software has a marketing program built in. This program gives registrants (e.g. brides) a monetary bonus if they complete five steps. Previously, when registrants reported that they added a link on their social media page, a store would have to ask the registrant on which platform they added the link. The same process occurred when the registrant reported ...
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Next page

Press: Bridge in the News
Shop Local Merchants Ranks Higher than MyRegistry.com and Shopify Merchants
Shop Local Merchants Ranks Higher than MyRegistry.com and Shopify Merchants
September 2023

Shop Local Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 64% of States
Shop Local Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 64% of States
September 2023

Tableware Today: Free Shipping Pays Off
Tableware Today: Free Shipping Pays Off
March 2023

Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
Bridge Helps Indie Stores Rank on Page 1 of Google in 76% of States
October 2022

HFN: Bridge Experiences Record Growth
HFN: Bridge Experiences Record Growth
August 2021

Press Release: Bridge Membership Surges 50%
Press Release: Bridge Membership Surges 50%
July 2021

Four Trade Publications Report on Bridge's Growth
Four Trade Publications Report on Bridge's Growth
July 2020

HFN Editor Praises Bridge
HFN Editor Praises Bridge
March 2020

Seminars Offer Strategies for Independent Stores
Seminars Offer Strategies for Independent Stores
January 2020

Tableware Today Article: Chart Your Future Before Big Tech Does
Tableware Today Article: Chart Your Future Before Big Tech Does
November 2019

HFN Publishes Jason Solarek's 'Letter to the Editor'
HFN Publishes Jason Solarek's 'Letter to the Editor'
May 2019

HFN Shares Juliska is Joining Bridge
HFN Shares Juliska is Joining Bridge
March 2018

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