The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) has teamed up with Simba Information, a leading media-industry intelligence and analysis firm, to produce a new report detailing trends in the Christian retailing sector.

The report, which uses the Sales Tracking Analysis Trends Summary (STATS) P.O.S. data collected from nearly 1,000 Christian retail outlets across the U.S., will be sold exclusively to Christian retailers and publishers.

The report, released in March the last two years, is slated for release on Aug. 1 to " better coincide with the Christian retailing selling seasons," said ECPA President Kelly Gallagher. "The new schedule will now provide data through the first quarter of this year as well as last year."

Future reports will span from April through the following March.

The decision to team with Simba Information and its 35-year knowledge base of the book-publishing industry-built through its Book Publishing Report, Educational Marketer and Professional Publishing Report newsletters-will bring "considerable enhancements to this year's Christian Publishing & Retail Trends 2005 report," according to ECPA.

In addition to providing detailed sales breakdowns by category of Christian books, Bibles and related products, changes to this year's version will include editorial analysis of marketing trends and future sales projections, as well as commentary and feedback of key industry publishing and retail veterans.

A special pre-publication sales price of $550 will be offered to ECPA publisher members ($150 savings) for the printed report, and $450 for the electronic PDF version.

Additionally, ECPA has negotiated a special subsidized rate to Christian retailers of $99 (either version)-due in large part to the significant role CBA has played in collecting and aggregating the data. Orders will be processed by ECPA.