Christian retailers should be cautious about undercutting themselves in their cornerstone category, the Bible, according to leading publishers.

While Bibles remain the Christian retail channel's best area for setting themselves apart from and above other sales venues with superior customer service, stores may be too quick to feel they have to compete on price, too.

That was the view of representatives of five major Bible publishers speaking about the category in an online Christian Retailing roundtable discussion, excerpted in the next issue of the magazine.
Because of price pressures, Baker Publishing Group "had been in the mind-set ... that we needed to always focus on the lowest-priced Bibles," said Brian Vos, the company's director of Bibles. But "we learned that we need to always present the best Bibles first." He encouraged "more emphasis on the quality and the value and not always on the lowest price."

Randy Jahns, senior vice president for Bible production and ministry at Crossway, noted that there are many inexpensive Bibles for outreach, "but many people are coming to purchase a lifetime kind of Bible and so they are very willing to invest in a good-quality one. I would like to see more of those carried, even if they are in small quantities."

Jeffrey Smith, director of Bible marketing for Tyndale House Publishers, observed: "I think that when we are driving Bibles into a commodity zone, in essence we are hurting each other and hurting Christian retailers by cutting margin."

Also taking part in the discussion--which also addressed new releases, training resources and merchandising--were Gary Davidson, senior vice president and publisher, Thomas Nelson′s Bible Group, and Todd Niemeyer, vice president for trade sales, Zondervan.

Read more in the April issue of Christian Retailing magazine. Click here to listen to the complete roundtable discussion.