About the Bridge Program
The Solarek Studio offers the website Bridge program to empower retailers to sell 1,000's of products quickly and easily. The program is made possible by the participation of three parties:
- Brands
- Retailers
- Solarek Studio
The Bridge program allows retailers to take advantage of the investment that distributors and brands such as DeVine and Pickard have made into their website for a fraction of the cost. A bridge tool is setup that "ports" the brands/distributors' website products to the retailer's website. The retailer's website overall looks the same. As such, an online customer doesn't even know the Bridge process is happening. With the Bridge program, the retailer's site can sell all 1,000's of products, show photos that accompany these products, and receive automatic updating of products on the retailers site (so the retailers doesn't have to maintain the products when prices change, etc.).
Furthermore, the retailer will receive promotion on the brands/distributors' Find a Store page.
A special Bridge icon will appear next to all Bridge partners. In addition, the brands/distributors' website has achieved a very high ranking in Google and other search engines. This same high ranking is not guaranteed but can be expected from the retailer's website "mirroring" the
brands/distributor website. Since integrating the Bridge, one retailer in the Bridge program has seen sales increase by 450% over last year.
The following steps are needed to set up the Bridge service:
- The Retailer chooses which brands it would like from our brand list. (Please see the list at the top of the page.)
- The Retailer signs up using the Sign-up Form
- Solarek setups the Bridge website, and the Bridge products appear on the retailer's Bridge site.
- If the retailer already has a website, it links to the Bridge site. If the retailer does not have a website, it can use the Bridge site as its primary site. It may even add whatever non-Bridge products it chooses to sell.
- The retailer makes sales on the new Bridge site.
Below please find examples of how the Bridge works with DeVine products:
Adding items:
- DeVine adds a new Anna Weatherley pattern that consists of 20 items. DeVine adds these 20 items to its website, including pictures, price, and stock.
- The items appear on the Bridge partner's website the same day with no work needed by the Bridge partner. The pictures, stock, and prices all appear. As such, Bridge partners are the first to offer new patterns on their site. As soon as DeVine offers them, the partner can also sell them.
Removing items:
- DeVine discontinues a pattern. DeVine remove the pattern from their site.
- The Bridge removes the pattern from the retailers site, saving the retailer from having to do so, or wasting time taking an order for a discontinued item left up on their website.
Making a sale:
- A consumer views all Anna Weatherley's items on a retailer's Bridge site. The consumer decides to purchase an item, and checks out online via the retailer's website.
- The retailer receives this order from the customer online via e-mail. The retailer receives the consumer's credit card information. The retailer then places an order for the item from DeVine just like it would a in-store special order for a DeVine item. The retailer requests that the Bridge item be drop shipped to the customer. The retailer never has to carry the Bridge item in stock, or 'touch' the item itself.
Additional Devine Bridge Benefits
- Drop ship charges are waived on wholesale orders under $500 retail.
- A retailer's promotional brochure is included when item is drop shipped from DeVine's headquarters.
- One click fulfillment. An order is automatically filled out on DeVine's website when an order is placed on the retailer's website. (Coming soon.)
View mini-Bridge templates
Please view our mini-Bridge template design below. We can customize the template with colors, fonts, and images. You choose the look.
» Home page design explanation
» Results page design explanation
See the Bridge in Action
Anna Weatherley examples:
mini-Bridge: Smith's China, California
Full Bridge: Sallie Home, Missouri
Full Bridge: John Dabbs, North Carolina
Pricing
- mini-Bridge has two models: Free or $49 per Bridge brand. Free model: when sale is made, 85% of sale goes to retailers. 15% to network.
- mini-Bridge Plus: mini-Bridge charge above, and $49 month. mini-Bridge Plus gives you a new website and the ability to sell any product you add to the website. (Please note: hosting and product import are seaparate.)
Promotions
- Receive a 15% discount if you pay up front for a year of Bridge service.
- If you subscribe to all Bridge brands, we'll give you a $100 rebate.
Sign Up
For more information on the Bridge, please contact:
Jason Solarek
Solarek Studio
339 East 9th Street
New York, NY 10003
T: 212-254-9654
jason@solarek.com
www.solarek.com
How does the Bridge work?
Real world example of how the Bridge service helps a retailer
This example shows how a small, independent retailer in the suburb competes with a massive, name brand retailer. Due to the Bridge, the small retailer is 'bigger.' This example compares the two sites and their ability to sell the luxury tableware brand Anna Weatherley.
non-Bridge Retailer (on the left, above):
Since this retailer does not have the Bridge, it sells just 30 out of
54 available patterns. It shows pictures for just 18 of the patterns.
Score:
= Missing 24 patterns (or 45%) of Anna’s patterns.
= Of patterns listed on this site, 42% do not show a picture.
= Overall, only 31% of Anna’s line can be seen with pictures on this site.
Bridge Retailer (on the right, above):
The Bridge allows the small retailer to offer entire Anna Weatherley product line.
Sells 54 out of 54 available patterns.
Shows pictures for ALL items.
Score:
= 100% for pattern and product offering.
= 100% for image offering.
How can the Bridge help you to increase sales and cut costs?
There are two key questions that a company like yours will face in building and maintaining a website:
1) How many products do you wish to sell?
2) How much money do you wish to spend adding products, maintaining prices, and removing old products?
How can the Bridge save you $25,929.00+ in labor costs?
To find out how much money the Bridge can save you in labor costs, please find an estimate below of what it may cost to add the Bridge items yourself to your website.
Estimated time to add
a product to a website: 9 minutes*
*This entails photographing the product or retrieving the image from the brand, formatting it for your website, getting pricelist from the brand, then entering the product name, price, picture, description, and dimensions to your website.
9 minutes x 11,524 (the number of products in the Bridge) = 103,716 minutes you’d need to add the Bridge items to your website
or viewed by the hour:
103,716 minutes divided by 60 (60 minutes in an hour) = 1,729 hours you’d need to add
the Bridge items to your website
(assuming a 40 hour week, this is
44 weeks of work)
Let’s assume you find a computer savvy person to add the items, and pay them $15 per hour.
$15 x 1,729 = $25,929.00 to add the Bridge items yourself.
$25,929.00 does not include the cost of maintenance, such as updating prices, adding new
introductions, etc. This amount also does not include your costs to manage employees,
employee benefits, vacation, sick days, work space, computers, and software. As such,
the cost to add the Bridge items yourself is much more than $25,929.00.
The Bridge can give you $25,929.00+ worth of product for pennies on the dollar, and save you time.
About Jason Solarek:
Jason Solarek is Creative Director of the Solarek Studio, a Manhattan-based marketing company that has built websites for the luxury home goods industry, including DeVine Corporation, Mottahedeh, Pickard China, Marel Gifts, Scully & Scully, and William-Wayne & Co. Under Jason's direction, his clients have sold more than $3 million online. You're invited to visit Jason's blog dedicated to successful home goods e-commerce at:
http://tablewaremarketing.blogspot.com
