Retail technology solutions-provider Bookstore Manager has reported that more than 200 Christian retail stores and more than 90 suppliers are actively using its new Christian Books & More Gold gift product database.

The database for gifts was designed to enhance Bookstore Manager's existing Christian Books & More database and to provide a “common standard” for the Christian-retail industry, the company said in a statement. Christian Books & More Gold has been in use since January.

Participating gift suppliers regularly provide new release information for their gift products, including status of availability, sizing information or frame dimensions, scripture references when applicable and color options.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has attempted to standardize a Christian gift product database,” said Randy Voorhees, president and founder of Bookstore Manager.

“Suppliers have never provided stores a consistent way within the gift category of (naming) or describing their product. For the most part, this has forced stores to hand-key the data into their P.O.S. system. With no consistent title or description, it's been virtually impossible, before now, to create a standard gift-product database,” he said.

Voorhees said Bookstore Manager met with stores over the last year, asked for input on how the company could provide new technology, and found that “creating a standardized Christian gift database was something we just had to provide for Christian retailers … something that just had to be done,” he said.

Christian Books & More Gold allows for searching by features such as scripture verse, category, keyword, artist or UPC, through standardized descriptions and categories.

“Considering over 30% of a Christian store's sales are generally gift items, this new database should save stores a great deal of time and lend itself to increased gift sales,” Voorhees said.

Christian Books & More Gold is available on a subscription basis, whether or not a store uses Bookstore Manager's P.O.S. software, the company statement said. The database is updated monthly.