Christian retail sites ‘have to be prepared to compete’ with Internet giants

Christian chain stores have been been putting an emphasis on their online presence during the past year, as  some also saw brick-and-mortar expansion.

Groups like Cokesbury and CLC Christian Bookcenters both identified the Internet rather than other physical channels as their greatest challenge for business, with leaders from both groups citing examples of customers coming into outlets to research resources before then ordering online. 

With four regular stores and five church operations—two added last year—CLC recently launched a new and improved Web site, www.clcbookcenter.com, to try to capture more online sales. The site emphasizes titles from its sister organization, CLC Publications, featuring authors such as Amy Carmichael and Andrew Murray.

“I don’t think Christian retail is hopeless, but I think we have to do things differently,” said James Pitman, director of retail sales, who noted 2010 sales down 12% -15% on the previous year. In addition to developing its Internet services, the chain had also cut operating costs by careful attention to opening hours and staffing as well as experimenting with bargain and used books to try to draw more traffic, he said.

Internet shopping capabilities have been a major emphasis for Cokesbury, too, where Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales Ed Kowalski said that online sales were particularly important for the chain’s historically leadership-heavy customer base—many of whom were used to buying academic titles from the likes of Amazon.

As a result, there had been a lot of investment in upgrading Cokesbury.com, including improved search functions and a curriculum-finder service to help clergy and others in church ministry find suitable educational resources. “There’s no hiding on the Internet,” Kowalski told Christian Retailing. “We have to be prepared to compete” with Amazon.com and others.

The online changes came in a year that saw several “underperforming” Cokesbury stores closed, reducing the chain to 61 locations. Going forward, Cokesbury would be looking to relocate some existing stores and open new operations in conjunction with some of the United Methodist conference centers around the country, Kowalski said.

While another emphasis for the chain—church supplies—had not been affected so much by online sales, it had been hit by the economy in 2010, he noted. Church giving and budgets were down, “and that translates to fewer choir robes being purchased,” he said. 

At Mardel Christian & Education, 2010 was the first full year of operation for a new Internet presence that integrated the chain’s online and in-store inventory, said President Jason Green. The changes were among several that enabled the chain to see revenues “at our expectations” for the year, with “some stores up some and some down.”

Adding one new location—in Corpus Christi, Texas—to bring its total to 34 in eight states, Mardel also continued to refit older stores in the new look of more recent openings. Gifts remained a strong category, Green said, while his stores had seen success with an increased emphasis on apparel. 

Though Lifeway Christian Stores declined to comment on 2010 operations, the chain—with 163 locations at year’s end, up from 2009—was “performing well,” President Mark Scott said in a third-quarter report to trustees.