In October of 2001, I walked into William-Wayne & Co. in New York City with no appointment. I asked for the owner, was introduced to the co-owner, and suggested he build a website. The two owners, William and Wayne, agreed to discuss it further with me and we scheduled a meeting. Nine months later, William-wayne.com was born.
We’ve updated the website since then, but the fundamentals have stayed the same.
It all started with William & Wayne &...
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We’re happy to share that we've updated our website.
FOR RETAILERS, SALES REPS, AND THOSE WITH WHOLESALE ACCESS
Good news: If you had a login and password on the previous site, you can use this same login information on this new website. (Your login and password have not changed. )
If you forgot your login, please use the “Forgot login...” link. Thank you.
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Thanks to Casafina, a leading maker of table and giftware, for including a Shop Local flyer in its packages sent to retailers. The flyer helps the recipient more easily market and sell what is in the box online 📦 —> 📱—> 🎁
The recipient can open the box and in minutes do what otherwise may take hours. The store can scan a QR code on the flyer, sign up for a free Shop Local Store, Sync with Casafina products, and instantly show and sell the products online...
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ARTE ITALICA AND CROWN LINEN DESIGNS 2024 CATALOG IS HERE!
In keeping with this year's vibrant color trend, we're excited to announce many new linen colors including, Limoncello, Citron and Magenta.
We are also excited to add the Rialto Collection, a Venetian inspired colored glass and two styles in colored dinnerware, Fiori and Imperial. Ranging from soft pink to bright blues, it will liven up any table setting!
Thank you so much for your partnership with us. Wishing you a ...
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I recently saw a car with the license plate: WHYWRK. I had a sad feeling for the driver, who perhaps wasn’t as lucky as I to have the best job in the world – getting paid to shop for the most beautiful goods in the world – which I am now retiring from. After 40+ years as a buyer of tabletop and gifts in Buffalo, I have the opportunity to put the dishes away, polish the flatware, and store the stemware. As a small specialty store, we’ve been through our share of ups and ...
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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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As the season of gratitude and togetherness arrives, we extend our warmest wishes to all our customers celebrating Thanksgiving. May your homes be filled with laughter, your tables overflow with abundance, and your hearts be warmed by cherished moments with family and friends.
Thank you for being a part of our journey. Your support and trust inspire us each day, and we are deeply grateful for your continued patronage. Wishing you a joyous and bountiful Thanksgiving filled with love, happiness...
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What the retail industry can learn from Google and Amazon teaming up on technology standards.
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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A shopper, Joshua Looby, shared this reply to the email he received after placing an order on our Shop Local platform:
"Thank you, Jason, I love small business it's the backbone of the country and the world really. It's nice to see this level of care and customer service that most large-scale companies have forgotten about."
Joshua made a purchase at Thalia and Dahlia, an indie retailer in Ohio. After placing his order, Joshua received an email from Jason Solarek, Shop Local...
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We're happy to share that we've reached a new milestone: more than 1,300 indie retailers use our Online Store. As a reference, in 2015 just 100 stores used the platform.
Thank you to all our retailers and brand partners for making this growth and success possible.
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How limited resources can motivate teams to accomplish goals and breed solutions.
September 3, 2023
India last month joined three other countries in the exclusive club that has put a craft on the moon. What’s unique about India’s accomplishment is that it did this at a fraction of what the U.S. spends on space exploration, shares Ben Cohen in The Wall St. Journal. While the U.S.’s NASA program has a $24b budget, India’s ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) budget is just $1.3b. India, which started its space program in 1963, is able to do more with less because of ...
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I was inspired to read that what we do today as a software company can be traced back 42,000 years to a bone in a South African cave. I realized this after reading The Wall St. Journal’s review of ‘Empire of the Sum,’ a book about pocket calculators.
Here’s the lineage: We’re in the software business, which is a relative of the computer business, which is a relative of the pocket calculator business (just ask Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, who ...
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My colleague Josh shared this poem with us. I like the parable about doing things for others. At Bridge, we support the poem’s view by building a platform that helps growing indie businesses. We build solutions for problems (“chasms”) that existing customers have knowing that future businesses that join us (“the youth”) will benefit from these digital bridges. To our team: Thank you, Bridge Builders.
A shopper, Cindy, shared this reply to the email she received after placing an order on our Shop Local platform:
"LOVE supporting local businesses! Thank you for your nice email -- what a lovely touch! Best, Cindy"
Cindy made a purchase at White Peacock, an indie retailer in Colorado. After placing her order, Cindy received an email from Jason Solarek, Shop Local's Founder & CEO, thanking her for supporting local and placing an order with an indie retailer.
We place the year on the back of the shirt in the style of a sports jersey. The sports reference is a nod to us playing on the same team together to help indie stores.
(We didn’t do a 2020 t-shirt. Oops. Not many businesses wanted to commemorate the year of the pandemic.)
Thank you, Bridge team, for a successful 2023 ;)
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Many of our graphics start as sketches. In this example, I drew a sketch of what we need to show brands and sales reps. We need to communicate visually that their showroom products need to be displayed on their retailer’s website.
I started with a sketch on a Times newspaper page, and then reproduced that in Apple’s Pages program. Pages is a bare-bones program that can help one make visual diagrams. (Photoshop is my preferred program for visual projects.)
A shopper, Laura Armistead, shared this review regarding her experience on our Shop Local platform:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“My online shopping experience at Elizabeth Clair’s was wonderful! The site was easy to navigate, and it took no time at all! As always, the customer service was excellent and pleasant! Thank you so much!”
Ms. Armistead made a purchase at Elizabeth Clair's, an indie retailer that has used our e-commerce software since 2018 and has two locations in ...
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On Thursday morning we helped our brands and retailers see how the platform operates first-hand. We helped retailers sign up and Sync with member brands.
A special thank you to Jonathan Pearson (Kitchen 2 Table), Brooks Terry (Babcock Gifts), Neil Peters (Carmel Ceramica), Sonny Melder, Greg Candler (Cuisinart), our friends at Sara & Beth Gifts, Inside Irwin’s, and Vineyard’s Gifts, and many others ☺️
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