Stores and suppliers ‘pleased’ despite ‘fiscal cliff’ government stalemate, superstorm Sandy that hampered business

The 2012 Christmas season yielded mixed results for Christian retailers, suppliers and distributors, but optimism prevailed despite the impact of late October’s Hurricane Sandy and the “fiscal cliff” stalemate in Washington, D.C., which hampered business. 

In the broader market, retail sales of electronics, clothing, jewelry and home goods grew by 0.7% year-over-year in the Oct. 28-Dec. 24 period, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. That was below the healthy 3% to 4% growth that analysts had expected, Reuters reported. In 2011, estimated holiday sales rose 2% and continued up in 2009-2010, rebounding from the recession that saw a holiday sales decrease 5.5% in 2008.

Online sales, which make up about 10% of total holiday business, also slowed down this Christmas season, increasing only 8.4% from Oct. 28-Dec. 22, according to SpendingPulse. That’s a sharp slowdown from the online sales growth of 15% to 17% seen in the previous 18-month period.

In the Christian market, many were still compiling results in early January, but overall those contacted by Christian Retailing were upbeat about Christmas sales.

Bill Nielsen, chief operating officer of Berean Christian Stores, said the season was “strong overall” for the 18-outlet chain. 

“This was the result in large part due to strong Thanksgiving results and the last half of December, which was very strong as well,” he said. “We achieved this with less price-discounting than in prior years. Instead, we focused on increasing the customers we reached out to overall and then increased the frequency we touched them with a direct mail, emails and mass media. 

Christmas season sales were up about 7% compared to 2011, with books, Bibles, videos and gifts the “strongest categories” for Berean, Nielsen added. 

“As importantly, we increased our stock levels exponentially to ensure that we maximimzed the customer traffic we had with a greater breadth and depth of product,” he said. “As a result, we saw more traffic converted into transaction while also seeing about a 10% increase in the average sales per transactions.”

Chuck Wallington, owner of Christian Supply in Spartanburg, S.C., and founder of the Covenant Group, said that his store’s sales were down 5% in November and December compared to the same period in 2011. Covenant is the country’s second-largest independent Christian chain with 20-plus member stores.

“That was pretty much reflected in all Covenant stores that we heard from,” Wallington said. “I did not hear from any that were up, and some were down 8%.”

A combination of things negatively impacted sales, including the presidential election results. “Almost half the country was disappointed with the results, and that is the half that generally does the most shopping—at least in our stores,” he said. “Then you had the severe weather that hit the Northeast and also the tragedy at Sandy Hook in Connecticut. Both of those things seemed to weigh on people, and I think affected their Christmas shopping spirit. Toward the end of the season, the non-stop discussions about the fiscal cliff seemed to overshadow a lot of folks’ thinking.”

Online sales were “definitely the bright spot” at Christian Supply, Wallington said. “We had about a 60% increase in sales over the previous year online in November/December. … Bibles would have also been at the top of the list if we ranked by sales instead of sales units.

“We were actually disappointed with our results,” he added. “I talked with a couple of heads of chains as well as a lot of our indies in Covenant, and everyone seemed negatively surprised at the results of all their efforts for this Christmas. I sure hope 2013 provides more bang for our bucks and time.”

Among suppliers, at Tyndale House Publishers, Vice President of Sales Dave Endrody said that the Christmas season’s sales “were slightly above expectations.”

“Sales were not carried by any one or two titles, but rather the whole line,” he said. “With the very strong start to Black Friday sales, we were hopeful that the 2012 Christmas season would give us significant gains over a year ago, but the momentum slowed into December, and the season ended with only marginal gains over 2011 and the 2010 Christmas retail season. … Given the previous months’ sales history [in 2012] and the uncertainty of the economy, a robust Christmas selling season would have truthfully surprised us all.”

In digital sales, Joel C. Rosenberg’s Israel at War was “far and away our best-seller with all of the tension in the Middle East during the last quarter of the year,” Endrody said. “Still Lolo by Lauren Scruggs also showed well in e-book sales.”

Bill Westfall, vice president of sales at Barbour Publishing, said the company’s sales were down largely because it reduced the number of products in its Christmas program due to feedback from retailers. 

“However, the number of stores who did order our Christmas Gift Program this year increased by 3%,” he said. “Except for 2011, our Christmas sales were comparable to the previous years. We had higher sales in 2011, but the returns were greater as well. … We are optimistic that the sell-through of the 2012 products will be greater than previous years.” 

At leading apparel company Kerusso, Rusty Dycus, vice president of sales, said the Christmas season was “better than expected.”

“With the economy as poor as it has been, our sales to the CBA market was great,” he said. “I was pleased. Our sales were slightly up from Christmas 2011.”

Timed for the holidays, Kerusso released a “Habit” T-shirt, a parody of the much-anticipated December theatrical release of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Bill White, vice president of sales for NOTW, said the apparel company’s sales were up for the fourth quarter.

“We had very good season overall,” he said. “We are trending up in wholesale and our web business is especially strong. Our accessory and jewelry category is growing very well. … We believe we have weathered the worst of the economic storm. Sales are good and our customer base is growing. We are looking forward to a very good year.”

At Anchor Distributors, sales were also good, according to Whitaker Corp. Marketing Director Karen Keisler. 

“Knowing that Christian stores were still overcoming many challenges with the economy and Hurricane Sandy, we were pleased with sales results for the 2012 Christmas season,” she said. “Once again this year we observed that stores were ordering later than in previous years. The highest number of orders filled in one day was up nearly 18% over 2011 and took place on Monday, Dec. 17—a week later than the previous several years.”