More than 20 Christian retailers were able to increase their in-store traffic in the fourth quarter of 2012 by using the Covenant Group website program, company officials said.

Utilizing the "pick-me-up" options from Covenant's website program and companion phone apps, the retailers saw more than 1,000 items reserved for in-store pick-up during the fall months.

"With just over 20 retailers utilizing these services, that averages out to about 50 customers pointed to each of these retailers during the October-November time frame," said Chuck Wallington, Covenant Group founder and president. "In actuality, about 80% of the pick-me-up orders generated fell between early November and Christmas, so stores on our program saw quite a few customers directed to their stores from their branded sites."

Acknowledging that the measurement only captures customers that placed an order for pick-up in-store, he added: "We have no way of knowing how many other customers shopped our stores' sites before their trip to the store for their purchase."

Overall, Covenant Group reported more than 100,000 unique visitors at one of the 21 retailers' sites in December.

"This points to a huge amount of information relayed through these stores' websites, [which is] far beyond what we can track through online or pick-me-up order purchases," said Wallington, who is also owner of Christian Supply in Spartanburg, S.C.

Covenant provides marketing and support services to stores with a standard program for retailers with annual income of more than $1 million and an affiliate program for stores under $1 million in annual sales. The country's second-largest independent Christian chain also launched its first mobile phone apps for iPhone and Droid for member stores last summer.

Non-member stores can also take advantage of Covenant's website program and phone apps. For more information, contact Covenant Group at www.CovenantGroupStores.com.