Jul 30, 2020

Retailers and brands gravitate to Bridge’s online community

Bridge, an online e-commerce community, saw significant increases in membership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retail membership increased by 17% and nine brands joined the platform, including Lenox, Kate Spade, Dansk, and Richard Ginori.

Since the spring, 80 stores have joined Bridge’s e-commerce service, bringing the total to over 550 retailers. New retail members include Fragile Gifts in Atlanta, Georgia, Goldsmith Cardel in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jeffery Bannon in Charleston, South Carolina.

“The pandemic has accelerated everyone going online. But most businesses are missing out because they are not Amazon. Bridge is fixing this problem. We are giving stores the ability to offer as many products from a brand as Amazon,” said Jason Solarek, founder and CEO of Bridge. “By getting brands and retailers to team up, we’re able to help a store like Fragile Gifts offer an online experience that exceeds that of much larger competitors.”

Bridge’s brand partners, which include Juliska, Waterford, and 115 other home goods brands, were joined by new members Abigails, Dansk, Fitz and Floyd, Halycon Days, Kate Spade, Lenox, Pfaltzgraff, Richard Ginori, and WOLF (the maker of jewelry boxes). The total products shared via the community rose to 72,000 products as Lenox added 4,000 products, Kate Spade 1,200 products, and Richard Ginori 700 products.

“Our focus has turned to digital since March,” says Mariposa’s Director of Sales, Carter Everitt. “Between Bridge, virtual showrooms, and a revamped website, we have put a tremendous effort into connecting to people digitally. Our growth with Bridge has helped our independent retailers significantly.”

Bridge, founded in 2007 and based in New York, helps brands share their products with retail members in real time. This technology bypasses Dropbox and Excel sheets in favor of directly outputting the items online in the retailer’s Bridge Store. A brand using the Bridge product sharing service only loads an item once and it will appear in all of its ‘friended’ retailers’ Bridge Stores. Each store has its own Bridge Store that services and sells to its respective consumer base.

For additional information on Bridge, please contact Adam Sigel at adam@bridgecatalog.com.