Workshop speakers set out to equip and educate retailers at CBA's NEXT 2013 event, being held at AmericasMart in Atlanta.

Running Jan. 9-10, NEXT features multiple speakers at workshops on inventory management, category marketing, in-store events, cause marketing and navigating AmericasMart for The Atlanta International Gift and Home Furnishings Market, which many retailers plan to attend following the CBA training event, which concludes today.

In the Inventory Management session, Mark Hutchison, president of Canadian chain Blessings, offered tips on merchandising, product selection, marketing and measuring non-moving inventory. In picking "key, hot titles" retailers can get behind with an all-out push, he said Blessings moved 3,000 books of Billy Graham's Nearing Home (Thomas Nelson). In church supplies, Blessings sold a remarkable 1.85 million communion cups in one year and now has its own logo on the communion cup box.

Candace Tucker, manager and buyer at CLC Bookcenter's Center City store in Philadelphia, and Eli Hochstetler, owner of Gospel Book Store in Berlin, Ohio, the heart of Amish country, also added their thoughts on inventory management. Tucker emphasized ordering from various sources in order to accommodate the customer and not being afraid to upcharge for special handling. Hochstetler noted the value of not simply relying on the computer to keep track of inventory, but for store staff to truly know the placement of particular titles on the shelves.

Click here for more information on CBA’s NEXT 2013. 

The Parable Group has unveiled new upgrades to its website, which serves as the e-commerce site for the marketing group's 26 brick-and-mortar retail locations nationwide.

The improvements include a homepage redesign, a selection of 17,000 e-books, enhanced search mechanisms, a 'Pick Up In Store' feature, gift cards offered online and free mobile apps for devices such as iPhones, iPads, Droids and Kindle Fire.

"Instant customer access to local store stocking levels has helped drive traffic to stores for several years, and our new Pick Up In Store feature has further helped increase local purchases this Christmas season," said Parable CEO Steve Potratz.

Parable Manager of Business Development Erik Ernstrom added: "We're making it easy for family and friends who may be spread out across the country to still keep their gift purchases local. Grandma can purchase a gift card from her local Parable store, then either send that card, or email the number to her grandson anywhere in the country. He can then redeem that card in his local Parable store or on Parable.com where the local store gets credit for the sale."

Since Parable launched free mobile apps last fall, 8,500 apps have been downloaded by consumers.

"With the rising popularity and adoption of smartphones and tablets, we decided to reach our online customers through their device and provide a useful tool connecting them to the Word," said ParableMarketing Strategist Sally Ross. "Our Bible apps have been widely received and have helped brand us to consumers in the mobile market."

In the fourth quarter of 2012, mobile and tablet traffic on Parable.com increased 78.73% versus the same time frame in 2011 and online transactions made with mobile devices quadrupled during the Christmas season compared to the previous year, Parable officials said.

Click here for more information on Parable's enhanced website.

Inez Andrews, the lead singer of the legendary gospel music group Caravans, died from cancer Dec. 19 at her home in Chicago, the New York Times reported. She was 83.

"She was the last great female vocalist of gospel's golden age," Anthony Heilbut, author of The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, told the newspaper. The book is a history of the era from the mid-1940s to the early '60s.

Heilbut added that Andrews was known as the "High Priestess," ranking among the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Marion Williams, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Clara Ward.

Andrews came to prominence in 1958 with the Caravans, a Chicago gospel group led by Albertina Walker that also nurtured such stars as Shirley Caesar, the Rev. James Cleveland and Bessie Griffin, the Times reported.

Andrews made her mark with two of the Caravans' biggest hits—"I'm Not Tired Yet" and "Mary Don't You Weep." She was also the lead singer on other hits like "Hold to God's Unchanging Hand," "He Won't Deny Me" and her own composition, "I'm Willing to Wait."

"Nothing ever worked for the Caravans until Inez started whistling—hitting the high notes," said Albertina Walker, who started the Caravans and died in 2010.

Andrews was also the leader of the Andrewettes and recorded "Lord, Don't Move My Mountain" a song that became a gospel and R&B cross-over hit.

Andrews will be honored with the Ambassador Dr. Bobby Jones Legends Award at the 28th Stellar Awards event, to be held Jan. 19 at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers (Tyndale House Publishers) recently received an Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Platinum Award for sales of more than 1 million copies via all retail channels.

Gold ECPA Awards, marking sales of more than 500,000 copies, also went to 11 titles: Every Day a Friday by Joel Osteen (FaithWords); How to Hear From God by Joyce Meyer (FaithWords); The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word by Joyce Meyer (FaithWords); Loving God by Charles Colson (Zondervan); One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp (Zondervan); Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman (Zondervan); The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn (FrontLine/Charisma House Book Group); One Month to Live by Kerry and Chris Shook (WaterBrook Press); To Heaven and Back by Dr. Mary C. Neal (WaterBrook Press); Forgotten God by Francis Chan (David C Cook); and The Action Bible (David C Cook).

Click here for a complete list of ECPA Diamond (more than 10 million copies in sales), Platinum and Gold Award recipients. 

Baker Book House in Grand Rapids, Mich., hit a home run with its 2012 Bible Sale, continuing its annual tradition.

Held Nov. 17, the promotion offered by the recently renovated independent store offered a 50% discount on all in-stock Bibles. The sale also included 50% off Bible covers and accessories.

"We sold 219 Bibles along with many other things," Sue Smith, store manager of Baker Book House, told Christian Retailing. "Best of all, quite a number of new customers walked through our doors. To me, that's the best part."

Louis McBride, Bible and academic book buyer for Baker Book House, said the store started receiving calls a week from people before asking, "When is your Bible sale?"

"This is a sale that we have really come to enjoy," McBride said. "As I expected, the top translations shopped were NIV (New International Version) and ESV (English Standard Version). I saw one lady with four ESV Study Bibles along with some other Bibles. A surprising number of people were interested in the New American Standard. I usually sell quite a few copies of The Message, but there wasn't that much interest in it. The NLT (New Living Translation) seemed to do fairly well, too."

McBride added that it was "a great sale" overall.

"We had just slightly lower sales than last year, which is not bad, given we just moved into our new space," he said. "There were a few times when you couldn't fit another person down the aisle. ... It seemed as soon as one group of people was done browsing, another group would take their place."

The store sold 96 NIV and 39 ESV Bibles during the sale. Interestingly, Baker Book House's annual Bible sales by translation in 2012 followed the same trend with its top five sellers the day of the sale. Last year, the store sold 4,152 NIV (including sales of The Story), 893 ESV, 576 KJV (King James Version) Bibles, 555 NLT and 321 The Message Bibles.

Digital marketing services company Innovative has reported that Christian retailers who utilized its Signature Websites, email marketing, in-store promotions and marketing group catalogs saw record results in the fourth quarter of 2012. The stores sold a record 80,000-plus products in-store during the October-November time frame.

Driving in-store sales were customers viewing more than 3 million pages on Signature Websites and shoppers receiving more than 2 million permission-based store email marketing pieces featuring promotional products, company officials said.

Retailers increased the in-store sales of their promotions as well as coordinated promotions in digital catalogs by Munce Group, Parable Group, Logos Bookstores and Innovative Church Marketing.

"We are excited to be selling so many of our vendor-supported, in-store promotion products that we are increasing our orders," said Mark Griffin of J. Farvers Christian Books and Gifts in Shipshewana, Ind. "Our Signature Website and their weekly professional email promotions showcase our store, promotions and digital catalogs. ...They're driving our store traffic and sales."

Larry Haege, president of Innovative, added: "We are fully committed to helping retailers succeed by generating the traffic, sales and profits which are necessary for them to compete in today's marketplace. We give retailers the tools they need to actively promote their store and drive in-store sales every day."

Click here for more information on Signature Websites.