How competitive techniques can help lure clients and grow a network.
September 10, 2023
Andrew Chen shares in 'The Cold Start Problem' that many times, networks are competing in a zero-sum game. One network gets a customer to join their network and thereby not participate in another. For example, when a driver used Lyft instead of Uber, Uber, which Chen helped, lost. And it lost in two regards: Uber lost the revenue from the lost ride, and Lyft gained the revenue. Chen’s team was tasked with getting drivers to use all their time driving for Uber and thereby unraveling Lyft&...
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How to promote post-wedding discounts to registrants to receive more orders for unpurchased items.
February 7, 2023
Your Bridge has a new feature: You can now promote post-wedding discounts on unpurchased registry items to your registrants. Your store can turn this feature on or off. This discount keeps your business competitive with major registry players (e.g. Zola may offer a 20% discount).
If you choose to offer a post-wedding discount, you can offer the following percentages off:
5%
10%
15%
20%
Once the feature is turned on for your store, the post-wedding discount is promoted to ...
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Some people like to sit on the sofa and eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I roll my eyes at this because I’m very different: I like to read the Wall St. Journal’s Christopher Mims …while eating an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s on the sofa. This past weekend, Mr. Mims suggested companies may be reassessing where they source products, some even considering more domestic production. The motivation for this started a few years ago with the U.S.-China trade war, ...
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In a recent NY Times article about working out, the author Christie Aschwanden gives readers tips on how to make working out more enjoyable. (Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/well/move/habits-motivation-exercise.html). In reading this, I saw many parallels between working out and helping our stores get their websites ‘in shape.’ The author encourages readers to not think of working out as exercise and instead think of it as "hanging out with friends...
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This past weekend on the way to Florida to visit my brothers, I read about Squarespace’s advertising history. (Read the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/13/business/how-did-squarespace-know-podcasts-would-get-this-big.html). In 2009, Anthony Casalena, the founder of Squarespace, paid $20,000 to advertise on a tech podcast. While that was a lot for a small, young company (Casalena had started his business just six years earlier in a dorm room in 2003), Casalena said the ...
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We were happy to read the book review for Josiah Wedgwood's new biography. Wedgwood is still produced today (250 years later) and is a Smart Brand member. I always find it fun to be reminded that Josiah's grandson was Charles Darwin.
Brands share their products with stores via the Smart Products marketing platform. Wouldn't it be helpful to see how those products are performing? Now you can. We added a new feature to help Smart Brands see how their products are performing. When a Smart Brand partner browses to a product in its Bridge account, it will now see a 'Product Performance' area. If you use Instagram, this feature may feel familiar. Instagram lets you view performance statistics for posts. We have brought ...
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The Times shares insights in to Amazon's desire to become a profitable company, including increasing employee turn over.
Excerpt:
In his drive to create the world’s most efficient company, Jeff Bezos discovered what he thought was another inefficiency worth eliminating: hourly employees who spent years working for the same company.
Longtime employees expected to receive raises. They also became less enthusiastic about the work, Amazon’s data suggested. And they were a ...
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Today's NY Times shares that many businesses are decreasing their office space footprint as they let employees work from home.
We are entering a new and unusual time post-COVID. More and more people will be working from home, further encouraging companies to decrease their amount of office space. I think this is a good thing for the most part, as it will open up jobs for people who don't necessarily live near a company's office. It also allows people to work from the comfort of their own home...
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At Mottahedeh we generally opt for lots of bold color with a style that is not shy. On the opposite end of the spectrum, white creamware made of faience, or soft paste porcelain, is our other love. Creamware has been in the offering for more than forty years. Many times, the original has been French, and yet we make ours in Italy as the craftsmanship is exceptional and historic. Faience can be made into shapely forms with lots of detail.
Here is our Lewis Tureen. This oval ...
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From Christmas presents to wedding presents, you can't go wrong with Waterford.
These are the items that I have used time and time again.
Waterford Water Pitcher- Great for refilling water glasses and also looks great on the bar with orange juice for mimosas!
Waterford Cake Plate. It is perfect for small cakes (I have to admit that I am not a baker, they are mostly from Publix) I have used it many times as a lift for a tablescape and also on my vanity to hold perfumes and lotions....
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If we want our communities to re-open after Covid, we'll need to do more than just beat Covid. We have to shop at local places online in order to ensure they are there when our communities re-open. Need shoes, a TV, or a book? Your local store can help you. And, money you spend there stays in your community.
As you may recall, Amazon’s growth was partially due to it encouraging shoppers to use local stores as ‘showrooms’ and then complete the purchase on Amazon. Let&...
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Sometimes we are critical of Macy's and the whole Federated chain. But perhaps we should take another look. They give us the legendary fireworks in July and the upcoming Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. But more recently they along with Tishman Speyer have taken on the incredibly complicated restoration of the old Abraham & Strauss cast-iron facade building in Brooklyn. Perhaps this Thanksgiving we should be more thankful.
From the NY Times:
New Yorkers are all too familiar with the wholesale ...
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October 10, 2019
October 10, 2019
Make the Table Your Canvas How to Decorate a Dinner Table Like a Professional ~ Read this story from the NY Times
By Aimee Farrell In our modern age, when meals are often shared not only with our immediate guests but with a whole cohort of friends on Instagram, dressing the dinner table has become a ritual that invites both artistic flourish and forensic precision. To simplify the process, T asked a host of creative types — from a husband-and-wife design duo to an artist and a team of florists — to...
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October 2, 2019
October 2, 2019
Weddings That Aren’t Just About the Couple
From today's NY Times Rather than signing up for expensive gift registries or handing out unwanted party favors, these couples are donating to charities.
I read the New York Times and want to ask: Are we sharpening our executioner's sword? That is what FedEx wondered as it helped Amazon grow by delivering its packages. Finally, FedEx woke up and decided it's better to make less money tomorrow than help usher in its death in the near future. As the Times reports, FedEx is terminating its ground delivery agreement with Amazon at the end of August, thereby passing on the delivery of millions of packages.
Amazon has historically partnered with ...
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June 24, 2019
June 24, 2019
“If the shoe fits, wear it,” goes the old saying, and today’s Times shares the state of indie shoes which may sound familiar to indie gift shop owners. This story seems to be ‘a fit’ for our industry, too.
I recently visited a Footlocker and noticed they had moved the Nike shoes to the back of the store. Why? Nike, with all of its stores and direct to consumer website promotion, is now a competitor and Footlocker is trying to reduce its reliance on Nike. To that affect, I went to the Nike ...
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June 23, 2019
June 23, 2019
Pictures and social media can be a dangerous combo: they breed competition, jealousy, and insecurity. ‘Likes,’ view counts, and comments by peers and strangers propel a bizarre world of masked perfection and underlying anxiety. This isn’t unique to honeymoon posts—it’s happening to teens, single adults, and even business owners that share via social media.