Events emphasis: Servant's Heart Gifts & Books, Camp Hill, Pa.

Vicky Fichtner is passionate about fulfilling the biblical command to practice hospitality. The co-owner of Servant's Heart Gifts & Books in Camp Hill, Pa., uses her store to make customers feel special and connect with the wider community.

"We love to offer special events," Fichtner said. "It gives us a chance to really do something extra for our guests, and to involve the community in a new way."

From pastor's luncheons, Vacation Bible School (VBS) workshops and a summer reading club for children to book signings and specialty parties for new DVDs as well as celebration events, it seems there is always something going on at Servant's Heart.

Five critical areas independent retailers must—and can—master to be successful

I can hardly believe that I've been in the Christian retail industry for more than 20 years. For half of that time, I had the pleasure of operating a Christian store, overseeing several stores and working at the home office of a national chain.

I came to the Munce Group 10 years ago because I was energized by the challenges and opportunities that faced independent Christian stores. I'm always encouraged by the independence that these independents exhibit—however, when they come together to get behind a marketing campaign, a cause, a new product release or an event, amazing things happen.

Certainly our industry has changed in my 20-plus years. Economic challenges, consolidation and competition have taken their toll on chains and independents. And yet, in these past two decades, those same challenges have provided opportunities for growth for some independent stores.

As I look back, here are some of the key areas in which I've seen independent retailers struggle, but also thrive with the right strategies and systems.

EXPECTATIONS

It is crucial to know and understand what your customers want and expect from you.

While we consistently hear of what is happening nationally with the economy, we must understand that our industry is built primarily on the local economy. Stores that talk to their customers and other retailers and read the local business section are generally succeeding.

Online forums like our own "Munce Talk" and Christian Retailing's online forum can provide an "online retailer roundtable" where stores can connect with each other to share trends and solutions. In recent times, savvy stores have started using social-media services such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate and build relationships with their customers. This helps them identify what is really affecting business and shopping behavior.

Having a local "social" connection with your customers and community will help you know key areas that affect your business—such as unemployment, inflation, competition, marketing, product selection, product availability or other influences.

INVENTORY

More than ever, it is important to pay close attention to your inventory levels.

Many surveys suggest that one of the main strengths and advantages of independent Christian stores is the selection of products there. Most general market retailers cannot—and will not—stock the selection of books and music that your store will.

In recent years, many key suppliers have started providing a core-inventory report. Work with your local sales reps from those key suppliers to ensure that you're in stock on the core inventory. Recognizing how necessary it is to be on top of this aspect of business, we have begun offering inventory-control training specifically to help stores improve their performance.

It is difficult for an independent retailer to have the time and resources to dedicate to inventory control. But I have seen how an inventory-control system like Above the Treeline can provide the necessary reports and analysis in a fraction of the time it takes to do physical inventories or read a handful of various reports.

Once a store has identified its core inventory, the owner can mark down, clearance—offer or return products that are just taking up shelf space and critical inventory dollars.

Some independent retailers are hesitant to bring in new product—we get comfortable with the old product on the shelves; somehow we think that we've invested our money and it doesn't matter if it sells or not. But if a retailer can free up the inventory dollars from the old stuff, investing in new products and core products is much easier.

Through our experience I remain convinced that if, in general, independent Christian retailers have the time and resources to focus on replenishment, they can explode in sales.

PROSPECTING

While reaching your active customer base continues to be a must, retailers also need to reach beyond those engaged shoppers and pursue new customers.

As we review our member-store sales performances, we see stores that have shown an increase in sales are the ones that have purposefully gone after the church market. Whether it has been carrying a few basic items or jumping into carrying the full line, there is a recommitment to working with the churches.

We have also noticed stores utilizing social media and Web sites and going after niche customer groups such as the Spanish-speaking community and consumers in urban areas. Also, many of our stores have indicated that going after "life events" such as baptism, first communion, confirmation, babies, weddings and grief and encouragement needs have attracted new customers.

While new products are always releasing, there are a few core products for grief and encouragement that are best-selling and the local Christian store should never been without them. Take a complimentary copy to your local independent funeral home or drop one off with a few of your area pastors.

VALUE

When the economy goes soft, many consumers are interested in products with a high-perceived value.

Of course, we believe that Christian products have an "eternal" value. In earthly terms, value is seen by the customer, not just because of a low price, but in a combination of the quality and the ticket. We have seen many stores that have increased their bargain and remainder selection also have grown their overall sales.

Effective merchandising is important. Use tables, endcaps and your cash-wrap areas to communicate value. Set up a table and cover it with a bright yellow tablecloth. Stack some closeout products or great buys from a vendor. A handwritten sign can say to shoppers, "This is just in and such a great deal that we didn't have time to make a professionally done sign."

And finally, featuring the right product at the cash wrap is an excellent way stores can increase the customer's total purchase.

TRAINING

Do not overlook the need to train staff to sell the benefits of the products—not just the features.

Customers will be more willing to purchase a product if they can associate a benefit rather than just a feature. Focus on a few key items for each selling season and equip staff members to be able to explain the benefits.

What are the benefits of this product? Will it enable purchasers to be better parents? Will it help them communicate their faith more effectively? Will it enrich them by enabling them to apply the Scriptures more efficiently in their personal study?

BE ENCOURAGED

Though business continues to be tough, retail indicators are showing great hope for the remainder of this year. And, do not forget the reason independent Christian stores exist—we have the good news of the gospel woven throughout the products we represent. So be encouraged and stay the course!

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will." (Heb. 13:20-21a, NIV).

By Bill Anderson

"Real Help for Your Business" is considerably larger than the theme for last month's International Christian Retail Show (ICRS). It's the driving vision of CBA's growing family of business solutions. These initiatives address the changing needs of our members and provide solutions that help our retailers more effectively compete in an ever increasingly competitive environment. 

CBA business solutions provide real help to solve some of Christian retailers' greatest challenges:

Retailers need help with Staff Training

CBA Connect is a Web-based e-business platform with a learning management system enabling retailers to train a frontliner for less than 5 cents/hour. All CBA frontliner and advanced management training is now on the platform. Participating suppliers will be providing product intelligence on key titles right to the frontliners who sell them.

In tough times, we need to remember why we are in the Christian products industry

I grew up with almost no knowledge of God. I was raised by wonderful, loving parents, both shaped by their parents and the Great Depression.

My mom and dad were both hard working, friendly, honest, giving of themselves and their time. They did everything they knew to raise my brothers, sister and me to be “good” kids.

But there was no emphasis in our home on God or His Word. I was raised in a certain branch of the Christian faith (which shall remain nameless) where we attended church almost every Sunday. It was all steeped in ritual, and nothing that I saw or heard there ever really grabbed my heart or my mind.

So somehow, by the age of 10, I decided that I was an atheist. I remember thinking that God and the supposed miracles I had heard about could not be true; after all, science had “proven” that.

When the Gideons handed out copies of their little New Testaments to students at our school in the fifth grade, I took one—all the while with my one atheist friend glaring at me as if I were giving up the good fight.

Throughout my early teens, I would sometimes lay awake at night gripped with sadness about what death would be like. I would think about my parents’ inevitable fate and my own, and lie there in fear. You see, an atheist has no hope beyond this life.

But I never really thought about turning to the Bible for answers to my questions. The New Testament I had accepted (from the Gideons)—because everyone else was taking one and I did not want to stand out from the crowd—still lay unread somewhere in my room.

Then, one day in my 15th year, I was at a yard sale with Mom. I had never been much of a reader growing up, so it was out of character for me to be drawn to books of any kind—let alone a book with a title like The Late Great Planet Earth. But somehow it was different with this little paperback that had taken the world by storm.

I bought the book for a whole 25 cents and began to read. Author Hal Lindsey told of the many prophecies in the Old Testament that all had their fulfillment in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

The evidence set forth in those pages brought me intelligently to the point of taking a step of faith. The statistical impossibility of all of those biblical prophecies being fulfilled in one person made a believer out of me.

I thought: “So if ‘prophecy’ is real, then a creator God who knows the end from the beginning is possible. Who else could make such predictions except an all-knowing God?”

As I finished that book, I let the author and the Holy Spirit lead me in saving prayer—confessing Jesus as my Lord and Savior and believing that God, the Creator of the universe who I had once denied, loved me and the world so much that He sent Jesus to die for us and didn’t leave Him in the grave, but raised Him from the dead.

I had been born again.

After that, I started reading the Bible—the same small New Testament I had tucked away when I was in the fifth grade. Later, I took the step of buying my first full-sized Bible from a local Christian bookstore.

Why do I tell you all this? To encourage you, because you are a part of the story—maybe not mine directly, but certainly one of the thousands like it that can be told in communities across the country. These stories are still being written because of people like you.

Undoubtedly the book I read, by Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson, which I found in a yard sale in 1978, was first purchased from a Christian retail store. Had there been no Christian bookstore, there would have been no book lying there at the yard sale calling out to me and … well, I think you see the progression here.

God’s amazing grace and His wonderful Word—first illuminated to me through that cast-off book—have changed me forever.

So I thank Him for all the Christian retailers and all the others who serve the Christian product industry—not just for the impact on my life, but for the countless others who have also been reached as a result.

I consider it a privilege, too, to have been able to play a part in writing some other people’s stories since becoming a Christian.

I may never write a book like The Late Great Planet Earth, but many people have read the Christian messages we’ve printed on more than 10 million shirts created at Kerusso.

Earlier this year, we published our 2009 Christian Apparel Faith & Motivational Research Report, which revealed that 98% of respondents said they wanted the message on their Christian T-shirts to be noticed by unbelievers—and 56.8% actually had an unbeliever ask them about the message on their garment.

Even more dramatically, we discovered in the study that 7.4% of unbelievers who engaged in a conversation with someone wearing a Christian T-shirt that had sparked an exchange between the two had made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior immediately.

Recently, I heard from a store owner in Colorado who told of two women shoppers looking at the Kerusso apparel items on display in the shop. The owner continued to build a relationship with the pair as they regularly visited the store, and after a few weeks, one of the two made a decision to accept Christ.

I was thrilled to hear that. I am sure that I am not alone in believing that, in these difficult economic times, it’s important that we remind ourselves why we got into the Christian products industry in the first place.

So, please, take some time and think back to all the stories and testimonies you’ve heard like mine. Use them to encourage yourself in the Lord, or share a story in which you have had a part with someone else who needs a boost. Remind yourself and your colleagues that you and they are truly making a difference for eternity.

What we are doing has an impact in the lives of many today and in the next life. All of us who are involved in the Christian products world are part of the fulfillment of Romans 10:13-15 (NIV): “For, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ ”

Let’s renew our commitment to this work, because—standing together—we are making an eternal difference.

All of us who are involved in the Christian products world are part of the fulfillment of Romans 10:13-15.

Since college, my personal and vocational passion has been to help people discover the power of great Christian content in their lives. I became a Christian at the end of my freshman year and immediately began reading the Bible my roommate gave to me.

Not long after, I visited our local Christian store and met the new owner, Steve Potratz. During our conversation he recommended that I read The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. Every time I visited

A reformed shoplifter’s personal guide to loss prevention

My palms were sweaty, my heart was racing, and my conscience was already killing me. But, tantalized by the potential spoils of shoplifting, I was ready to take the plunge.

The Christian retailer seemed an easy mark, and a new collection of Christian rock was sure to impress my youth group, who were unaware of my escapades.

And so, with a few quick casual moves, I relieved a Christian bookstore of a cache of products and slipped out the exit. It’s hard to believe that I wasn’t caught, while stuffing enough merchandise under my jacket to weigh down a small horse.

My shoplifting years are long past, yet Christian retailers still face the challenge of preventing theft while making their stores as inviting as possible. Some prefer tough tactics, but I believe that a fresh customer service philosophy may actually be the most effective way to prevent shoplifting.

These suggestions could help make Christian stores a better place to shop, while sending shoplifters packing—without unpaid-for products in their pockets.

RUN THE STORE, NOT THE DOOR

When a shoplifter reaches the security gate, if there is one, it’s too late. Giving chase is a risky endeavor, even for the clerk who is a track star with biceps the size of a professional wrestler. The result may be a confrontation involving a weapon, or with a gang around the corner.

Other considerations include falls, collisions and accidents. Tackling someone may result in liability concerns.

Tip: If your store utilizes a security sensor, don’t ignore a customer who “beeps” upon entry. Savvy shoplifters use devices to buzz the alarm on the way in. That way, after packing unpaid merchandise, they walk out casually—because when the alarm sounds again, nobody bats an eye.

FIRE THE FLOOR-WALKER

Leave the suspicious behavior to criminals. Having someone pretend to shop while scanning for thieves is a ridiculous undertaking. In the movies, the fugitive criminal can always spot the federal agent. It’s no different for staff members playing the “undercover security” role. Anyone experienced at getting the “five finger discount” can pick them out.

Smaller stores: Scrap the spy games. Surveillance comes naturally during organizational and service-related activities.

WATCH THE RESTROOM

Shoplifters love bathrooms because they provide concealment for removing security devices or packaging. Unpaid merchandise is not allowed inside, but criminals don’t follow the rules.

The answer? Keep eyes and ears in the bathrooms while beautifying them. Service these areas at frequent, random intervals to prevent criminals from making use of the stall to transfer stolen items. If a suspicious shopper visits the bathroom, immediately afterward be sure to check the stall and garbage bin for packaging or security tags.

SERVE WITH SINCERITY

Innocent shoppers may understandably be offended by overly suspicious store clerks, so check your attitude. Forget the stale “Can I help you with anything?” approach. Highly thoughtful queries are more effective. Relate to people in a friendly conversational way, no matter what your suspicions are.

Don’t offer people too much unsolicited assistance. Engage, and then move along. Allow someone else to follow up. Employees should share information about suspicious activity casually, such as while stocking a shelf. If needed, re-group briefly at the front counter or staff room to avoid pointing and whispering.

FIND COMMON GROUND

If someone struts in sporting trendy gear and listening to an iPod, send a young staff member over if possible. When a couple enters with a new baby, the expectant or young mother on staff should greet them. This is called “peer matching,” and it is an excellent approach. Why? Commonality.

The more connected patrons feel, the less likely they are to consider ripping you off. Stores with few staff can still make an effort to connect. Review trade publications or Christian magazines to stay in the know, helping to bridge any gaps between you and your shoppers.

DON’T PROFILE YOUR PATRONS

Not all shoplifters are teens with baggy clothes and a bad attitude. A young mother of twins or a man who just parked his Porsche may be trying to pull a fast one. Even senior citizens have been known to help themselves.

The notion that church people never steal is a myth. Don’t watch for suspicious types. Rather, have an eye out for suspicious behavior.

REMEMBER LOVE

Treating customers as you would like to be treated will foster feelings of friendship and loyalty toward your business. Even a kleptomaniac is less comfortable stealing from a friend. Showing respect and love to people who may be out to take advantage of you is in harmony with Christ’s commandment to “ … do good to those who spitefully use or persecute you” (Luke 6:27).

Aim to provide creative services that will benefit your customers, while simplifying store security. Try approaching shoppers with a special discount coupon when the store is busy. Stores that have a coffee stand or kiosk can open dialogue with folks by offering a certificate for a complimentary treat with purchase. With a parent’s permission, a fun freebie for the kids can go a long way in making their experience in your store more memorable.

Personally, I’m grateful that God helped me to learn the lesson of honesty the easy way. I never got into trouble with the law. However, confessing my crimes to store owners was no easy task.

Today, as a Christian businessperson and family man, I still have “radar” for criminal activity, and I have helped prevent several crimes, without the use of force. Becoming more aware and prepared to deal with this issue may be a way of heeding Christ’s admonition to “be as wise as serpents, and as innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16).

LOSS PREVENTION

Almost half of retail “shrinkage”—the total of which was nearly $35 billion in 2007—is due to theft.

The University of Florida, in conjunction with various sponsors including the National Retail Federation, reported on retail loss and its prevention in the 2007 National Retail Security Survey. The survey found that the average inventory shrinkage (shortage) rate, 1.44% of total annual sales, was down significantly from the previous year, but the dollar value of the loss, approximately $34.8 billion, continued at record levels. Inventory shrinkage encompasses loss from sources such as employee theft, shoplifting, administrative error and vendor fraud.

Retailers surveyed attributed 44% of their losses to employee theft, making it the single most significant source of shrinkage, followed by shoplifting at 34%.

High staff turnover and heavy reliance on a part-time store workforce can lead to inventory shrinkage, as “the part-time worker is less committed to the overall success of the company and is, therefore, more likely to allow shoplifting to occur and to participate in or ignore incidents of employee theft,” the study said.

Trent Halverson is a business owner and freelance writer in Saskatchewan, Canada.

We need to close the gap between what we sell and how we really live

Something churned inside me recently when I came across this advice to churches considering opening a bookstore: “If the area’s already well-served by a Christian retailer, the church should give prayerful consideration … to the possible impact on the Christian businessperson who owns the local store.”

I felt the stress faced by local store owners and the church leaders as they seek to be on the front line of ministry together while balancing the budget.

A competitive spirit is just one loathsome foe in the menagerie of diabolical imps you and I fight against as we—the members of the Christian retail industry—desperately seek to live the messages we hope will sell.

I know about the competitive spirit. If I’m brutally honest, I have to admit that I’ve gotten caught up in the industry as I watch my fellow best-selling authors for teen girls progress with rapt self- consciousness.

Though I love them dearly, I am in a constant battle with my flesh.

Today I blasted off a flow-of-consciousness e-mail to a list of best-selling co-laborers. “Frankly, girls … you and I teach teens to avoid being mean girls, but in my heart is always a competitive spirit,” I wrote.

“(There, I said it!) Either I am feeling like I’m ‘not enough’ because you are outselling me or I am feeling like I’m ‘all that’ because I’m at an event with teen girls squashing me to get an autograph.”

I spilled my guts.

I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of honesty that flowed into my inbox.

Vicki Courtney, winner of the 2008 Evangelical Christian Publishers Association’s Christian Book Award (Children & Youth) for Teen Virtue: Confidential (B&H Books/B&H Publishing Group), wrote back: “Even as someone who writes and speaks on this topic, I struggle with my own ‘inner mean girl’ rearing her ugly head from time to time.”

I had to ask if she ever struggled with jealousy in the industry. She was candid in her answer: “Ouch! Absolutely! God spoke truth into my heart through a friend of mine.

“She was speaking on Matthew 9:37—The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.’ She made the simple statement that there are ‘many rows to hoe in the harvest.’ And then she said, ‘Hoe your own row and quit worrying about the person in the row next to you!’ ”

I don’t know about you, but it gets hard for me to remember that whole “same team” thing when I’m worrying about making payroll for my staff. I can’t tell if I’m the valiant warrior of God who serves beside my sisters, or if I’m the fearful, territorial wimp worried about the bottom line.

I end up sometimes crying out in my spirit: “Will the real Dannah Gresh please stand up?”

Best-selling author Susie Shellenberger, former editor of Brio magazine, who is currently launching a new teen girls magazine called SUSIE Mag, admitted to the same struggle to live what she teaches.

“My greatest area of being un-Christlike is my impatience,” she told me. “I’ve called my accountability partner on the way to a speaking engagement and said: ‘I’m really angry right now, and I’m on my way to speak to teens about holiness. I need to confess this and pray through it before I get behind the microphone.’ ”

I cannot tell you how it made me feel OK to have Susie speak with such transparency. Apparently the real Dannah Gresh is the one who wants to serve God beside her sister, but often needs to call her accountability partner.

Can you identify?

Shaunti Feldhahn can. She’s sold more than 1 million copies of her books and speaks to our shared audience of teen girls through For Young Women Only (Multnomah Books).

She candidly piped in: “I don’t have to be told that ‘the human heart is deceitfully wicked’—I recognize it every day in myself in this industry! I recognize it when I find myself getting a bit jealous over the fact that someone else got that speaking engagement I would have loved, or see that someone else’s ‘competing’ book has sold a zillion more copies.

“I have to instantly and sincerely pray for blessing and favor for anyone I might have those feelings about, since I know that God will use that in their life and my heart!”

Oh, the juicy stuff that transpired in our little best-selling “inner mean girls” e-mail forum. We took time to cleanse our hearts and got things right in this little corner of the Christian retail industry.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this whole Christian retail thing just works better if we live it better than we sell it.

For example:

As we share Dave Ramsey’s books on biblical finances, can we say with certainty that we are living above the weight of debt in our ministry finances?

When we encourage a weepy wife with a copy of The Love Dare, can we say that we’ve been protecting our own marriages?

Romans 2:21-24 admonishes us with no amount of tenderness: “You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? …

“You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’ ”

We have to be willing to examine our lives to see if there is any potential for hypocrisy. If there is a disconnect between what we are selling and how we are living, our best contribution to the body of Christ is sitting on the sidelines for some rest or restoration.

Leslie Ludy, who penned When God Writes Your Love Story (Multnomah Books) with her husband, Eric, weighed in on this.

When I asked if they ever struggled with living out what they write about, she replied: “A few years ago, Eric and I decided to pull away from full-time touring and speaking.

“We knew that so much speaking was causing our marriage and relationship with Christ to get a second-place focus, and we were beginning to feel the results of burnout.

“It was hard to walk away, but it established a very important principle—if the Truth is not first real in our own lives, we have no business teaching it to someone else.”

If you ask me, that’s living out the message.

Now that you’ve read these confessions of best-selling inner mean girls gone mild, let me ask you something with an extra dose of tenderness:

What does your corner of the industry look like?