A Bridge to the Future

If you feature products on your website, you know that it can take a lot of time to keep the photos and information current. The Bridge is an innovative approach to solving this problem for retailers, connecting brands, shopkeepers and customers online by "stocking your website" with images and information. It is currently only active in the luxury and premium goods market, but the concept has potential for many other types of retailing. Is it something that might work in your field?

I learned about The Bridge from sales representative Celia Margolis while we waited for a plane to the Atlanta Gift Show -- I love the way air travel often leads to random conversations in the waiting area and even during the flight. It's a great chance to get to know someone you wouldn't normally talk to for an extended period of time.

The Bridge offers a catalogue site that can be customized with your logo, store colors, phone number, and other contact information. (The Fisherman's Wife in Wilmington, NC has a Bridge site  that you can view as an example.) This site can be used to show merchandise from your store's choice of participating vendors, and all product information is automatically updated by the manufacturer. A Bridge site can also be set up for use by sales reps to show goods from lines they represent.

At the moment The Bridge has a database of 18,000 luxury products that is jointly managed by 28 brands/manufacturers. These products are synched to participating retailers' websites. The Bridge is not, however, a fulfillment service, so you would still need to either have the items in stock or arrange for the supplier to drop ship them to your customer when ordered.

In addition to saving you time and effort in putting information about the goods on your website, a program like The Bridge increases your online presence enormously by providing a ready-made e-commerce site that handles order and credit card processing. (A small percentage of each sale is taken as a service fee.) Gift and bridal registry are also available.

The advantage to manufacturers is clear: they gain a large web presence with information that they can control. Retailers participating in the program are likely to feature a greater percentage of each line's offerings. And there is no charge for manufacturers to participate, because the retailer pays a monthly fee and a percentage of sales.

Jason Solarek, founder of The Bridge, recently won a competition from British Airways as one of the best small business services in the world. Solarek is Creative Director of the Solarek Studio, www.solarek.com a Manhattan-based design and marketing company. A graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, he brings a creative point of view to our industry. And that is always welcome!

Happy Retailing,
Carol "Orange" Schroeder

PS: There won't be a Specialty Shop Retailing blog entry the next two Mondays -- I will be traveling in Denmark and Iceland, and look forward to sharing my observations with you when I return.