FedEx is raising shipping rates 6.9%, which provides an opportunity for stores to get shoppers in the physical store. Store owners can encourage customers to skip the expensive ‘shipping tax’ and just pick their purchase up in store.
I don’t own a car, yet I have a strange desire to read Dan Neil's car column each weekend in The Wall St. Journal. Why would someone who doesn’t own a car, won’t be buying one soon, and hasn’t owned one in 25 years read a car column? It's a mix of enjoying the design and technology of automobiles, wanting to know what Dwayne Johnson may be buying next, loving Dan’s witty writing style, and, confession, simply being 13-years old at heart. Cars are ...
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An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today
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While thumbing through the Times, I noticed a smiling young woman’s picture in the obituaries. In the black and white photograph, she's standing on a fire escape with a historic building and a bridge in the distance. I was initially attracted to Ronni Solbert’s 1959 picture, yet I was even more drawn in by what I noticed next to her photo: a children&...
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The EU has passed a law that will affect Amazon and other big tech companies. The law will likely make it harder for Amazon to promote its own private label products on its website at the expense of others.
While this is welcome news to many, this is a small victory as Amazon’s ambitions are grand as well as its ability to outpace laws. For the first 25 years of the Internet, Amazon, founded in 1994, rode on the rails of the government being too slow to enforce online tax ...
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When I flew home yesterday from Charleston, while most people were seeking relief from their sunburns and reminiscing about their vacations, I was delving into The Wall St. Journal’s profile on Tracy Britt Cool, an ex- Berkshire Hathaway star. Mrs. Cool’s new company Kanbrick invests in businesses with $10m - $50m in revenue. What does Mrs. Cool look for when investing in a company? People and moats.
At Bridge, we’re reading Jim Collins’ Beyond ...
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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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We are finishing our transition to our new Netsuite system starting today and through most of next week. We will likely not resume shipping until next Thursday or Friday. Thank you for your patience during the transition.
I think that Zola, an online provider of gift registries, may be harming local stores. Zola allows brides to pick things from any site, such as an indie store’s gift registry. Zola may then encourage the registrant to bypass that local store and use those gift funds with Zola. This is an issue because Zola has handled more than 650,000 registries, and its revenue is estimated to be $130m. Millions of dollars may have been diverted away from indie, brick-and-mortar stores to Zola&rsquo...
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Scott Galloway, in his Chart of the Week email, shares that Amazon often ships an order within 45 minutes of receiving it. How long does it take your store?
For indie store to compete, we have to offer competitive pricing and shipping times. Bridge's goal is to help retailers offer the same or lower prices and offer the same or faster shipping.
Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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Contemporary intricate silver finished pewter branch pattern, adorned with hand-set clear European crystals. The collection includes frames, wedding and tabletop, vanity, and much more. Available for immediate shipping.
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Are you sipping whiskey this holiday season? If so, you may be paying more. It used to cost $.22 to ship a bottle of whiskey by sea. Now, distilleries are resorting to shipping it by air to get it to you in time for your Christmas party. Instead of $.22, airfreight is $4 per bottle. That may be cause for another sip.
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Good news for indie stores: Florida will require out-of-state sellers shipping to the state to charge tax. Taxes are a big deal in Florida: since Florida has no income tax, it has a notable state sales tax (6%, compared with New York’s 4%), with Florida municipalities adding up to another 1.5%. The incentive to buy online from out of state 'saved' the Florida buyer about 7.5%.
Now, this Florida law will level the playing field and remove the incentive to dodge taxes as everyone ...
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Operating a website is expensive--not only because programmers are expensive, but because margins are smaller.
For 10 years, Bridge has encouraged stores to beef up spending in preparation for the e-commerce boom. It's easier to spend a little each year over many years than spend money in a panic. Money spent in haste often results in waste. As a reference, when traditional retailers tried to catch Amazon, they often failed in their scramble. Please recall Macy's buying the ...
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My colleague Josh sent me this book and no joke sent it via Amazon. When asked why, he said so could save $1 off the retail price and get free shipping. Hmmm... And, why is the author selling his book on Amazon in the first place? I was half expecting to open it and find it full of empty pages. What else should one expect in receiving a book about how bad Amazon is from Amazon? Who knows, maybe the Amazon warehouse staff licked it.
Dear Amazon and author: Please don’t tempt ...
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