Great news: You can save 20% off your annual service.
This is like receiving almost 2 and a half months of service for free.
This 20% discount is double our normal 10% and has never been offered before.
This offer is only good till December 13, 2023.
I imagine you wish to take more vacations in 2024 (Paris or Patagonia?), see family and friends more often, or eat at that (expensive) new restaurant. When you pay for Shop Local's service for the year, you'll have more money to do ...
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“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”
~ Walt Disney
I read this quote in ‘Show Your Work’ and wondered how it applied to our mission here at Shop Local. I asked my team and they submitted their interpretations. One colleague even used an AI tool.
Team Submissions:
“We don't make Shop Local to make money, we make money to sustain Indie Stores.”
~ Jim
"We didn't make this software just to ...
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How to update your brands' wholesale terms by adding an opening order.
August 24, 2023
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: A brand can now add an opening order amount to its Wholesale Terms.
In the example shown, we see the Wholesale Terms section for Juliska. In this section, Juliska can update the opening order amounts for both of the brands it distributes. These amounts will be shown to retailers that wish to add Juliska or Capucine de Wulf to their accounts.
If you are a brand, please follow these steps to add your opening order amount:
How to find fulfillment details for your brands to accurately process and fulfill orders.
July 27, 2023
Your Shop Local Store has a new feature: you can now more easily access a brand's fulfillment details. The information helps your store more quickly and accurately process and fulfill an order.
Your Order Details page and a brand's Collections page now display fulfillment details for a Syncing brand. The information listed in the 'Fulfillment Details' modal may include:
I have a stack of virtual news clippings that either struck my fancy, taught me something new, or just made me shake my head in bemusement. On their own, they may not be enough for me to make a point, but together they have a thought-provoking synergy (and I'm sure I'll figure out what that is by the end of this column).
Our industry has been negatively affected by the loss of American manufacturing after we entered a long stretch of automation and outsourcing in the late 1970s; every ...
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Shop Local analyzed the websites for the top-40 selling brands in the tabletop and giftware industry. We assessed what promotions and discounts, such free shipping, brands offer. Shop Local did this because a product's price, which is impacted by discounts, is often the leading factor when shopping online. 70% of the brands surveyed by Shop Local offer free shipping.
How we can acquire new prospects by leveraging our existing network of customers.
June 2, 2023
In Andrew Chen’s book The Cold Start Problem, he breaks the network effect into three parts: engagement, acquisition, and economize. At Shop Local, we rely on the network effect and its three parts. I feel that we’re succeeding in terms of engagement but need improvement in acquisition.
Engagement
We use the 64,000 products in our Syncing service to engage 1,200 our retail clients. We email them new intros, price updates, archived items for these synced products. Once they ...
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A medium coffee at McDonald’s is $1.99. When a brand syncs with a retailer on Shop Local, it costs the brand $1.40 per month.
For $1.40, we do these seven things for our brand partner:
We sync an unlimited number of the brand’s products to the retailer's Shop Local Store. All updates, including price changes and new introduction launches, happen in real time. The retailer never has to click “download”
How to connect with or invite the sales reps assigned to your brands to sell more and quickly access their contact information.
March 20, 2023
Your Online Store has an updated feature: you can now more easily connect with your sales reps.
On a brand's home page, you can invite your sales rep to join you on the Shop Local platform. Your store can also edit or remove a sales rep assigned to a brand.
Connecting with your sales reps helps your store contact the right rep more quickly, sell more products, and work more efficiently.
Bridge analyzed the websites for the top-40 selling brands in the tabletop and giftware industry. We assessed what promotions and discounts, such free shipping, brands offer. Bridge did this because a product's price, which is impacted by discounts, is often the leading factor when shopping online. More than 67% of the brands surveyed by Bridge offer free shipping.
I'm giving you a $200 finder's fee when you refer a store.
When you refer a store, the store will receive $268. It will receive $100 towards a wholesale order with your brand and a $168 credit towards their registry service with us. (My company is paying the $100 wholesale order credit.)
This offer is good through May 1, 2023.
Summary: you give a store $268 and you get $200. (Bridge ...
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How to view key wholesale information for your brands to save time and avoid errors when processing orders.
February 23, 2023
Your Bridge Shop Local Store has a new feature: you can now more easily access a brand's wholesale information. This wholesale information helps your store more quickly and accurately process an order.
Your brand's Collection page now displays this information:
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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There are many ways to enjoy wine. Tasting it may be your first thought, of course, but what about learning things about wine and all your favorite varieties? If you enjoy a good game night, consider trying some of these fun wine games as part of your next one and test your knowledge or just have some fun!
Test your wine knowledge with a wine tasting game. Learn to identify wine in terms of region, vintage, and more based on taste and smell, only. You get to improve your wine knowledge while ...
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I discovered a page on Amazon’s site proclaiming that Amazon supports small businesses. That is news to me and many small businesses which have been attacked by Amazon, its deep pockets, and its army of millions of delivery people and thousands of warehouses. Amazon’s page says it helps small businesses, which it defines as having under 100 employees and less than $49 million in sales. (It says it uses Gartner’s definition.)
I'm giving you a $200 finder's fee when you refer a store.
When you refer a store, the store will receive $268. It will receive $100 towards a wholesale order with your brand and a $168 credit towards their registry service with us. (My company is paying the $100 wholesale order credit.)
Summary: you give a store $268 and you get $200. (Bridge covers the $468.)
How to view key wholesale information for your brands to save time and avoid errors when processing orders.
January 4, 2023
Your Bridge has a new feature: We've made it easier to access wholesale information for the products on your Bridge Store. Viewing an order's Details page displays wholesale information for products purchased by your customers.
Previously, when your store viewed a retail order's Details page the information displayed was limited to just details about the product’s brand.
With this update, the Order Details page includes: