Jason Solarek picture
Jason Solarek @ Bridge Sept. 14, 2011 • 11:51 AM • 4,902 days ago
How Jason Solarek Created The Facebook Of Retail
Jason Solarek picture
Jason Solarek @ Bridge Sept. 14, 2011 • 11:51 AM • 4,902 days ago

How Jason Solarek Created The Facebook Of Retail

This article appeared on AmericanExpress's OpenForum business website.

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How Jason Solarek Created The Facebook Of Retail
By Shira Levine
Freelance Writer, Business Insider

September 14, 2011

Building an e-commerce site can be expensive. Jason Solarek, who founded Bridge, realized that e-commerce sites were lacking their own free network, so he developed what he calls, “Facebook for retail businesses.”

“The E-commerce industry hasn’t enjoyed the free, all-in-one services that the social networking industry has.” says Solarek. “Social networking has Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. In contrast, the e-commerce market has few services enabling businesses to quickly and cost-effectively open an online store.” Solarek uses the Facebook analogy because Bridge is a connector of communities in the retail distribution chain. The site connects manufacturers, retailers, and sale representatives around one database. Like Facebook, it gives each business its very own website to share products data, images, and news.  The idea is to crowd source the management of products and boost sales to the general public.  Currently, Bridge connects 33 luxury brands and 35 retailers in the U.S. Bridge is looking into opportunities to expand in France and Japan.

Also like Facebook and other social media sites, Bridge is free for manufacturers and sales representative users—it’s the retailers who pay for the service. For retailers, Bridge is $19 per month per brand.

“Bridge is akin to paying for cable television channels a la carte. The more ‘channels’ you subscribe to, the more sales channels you open,” says Solarek. “The physical world equivalent would be opening a store where you pay no rent, pay no employees, and pay nothing for merchandise on the shelves. You just pay the cable bill.” 

Subscribing to these brand ‘channels’ cumulatively keeps maintenance costs much lower than hiring a web programmer and designer to manage a Web presence. The intent of Bridge is to eliminate that back and forth of finding and paying a web site programmer. Instead, Bridge automates what an expensive web programmer would do. 

“Just like your friend's are responsible for updating their Facebook page, the brand is responsible for updating its product information in Bridge. ... A retailer doesn't have to enter it brands' products on its site; Bridge does it for the retailer.”

A bit apprehensive about directing clients to a third party website?  “I often remind people that there were initially similar concerns about businesses linking to Facebook,” defends Solarek. “Whether someone experiences Coca-Cola on Coke's website or Coke's Facebook page, Coke wins. The same holds true for Bridge. A business' Bridge catalog is an official extension of the business.”

More information:
http://www.bridgecatalog.com/