A former chairman of CBA has appealed to Christian publishers for fresh help in growing sales in the Christian retail channel.

“We need to see that publishers are standing alongside us with strategies and policies that recognize the unique position we are in to represent the full spectrum of your titles,” Steve Adams told members of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

Writing in the April issue of ECPA's E-link electronic newsletter, Adams urged Christian publishers to develop special editions for Christian retail, involve retailers in new production design and development and help with supply chain improvements, among other initiatives.

A former storeowner who was chairman of CBA from 1996-1998 and is now franchise operations director with The Parable Group, Adams said that while sales of Christian products had grown in markets outside of traditional Christian retail stores, they and Christian publishers were “joined not just at the hip, but at the heart.”

Christian storeowners were “changed people,” restructuring and working together more closely, he wrote. “As retailers, we accept that we need to show you we are changing and growing, that we understand best practices that we have methods that are working and news ideas yet to be tried.”

Adams said that as Christian retailers and publishers looked to adjust to “the changing ground,” they could best do it together. “Certainly healthier Christian retail businesses mean healthier publishers, regardless of what happens in any other channel,” he said.

Changing lives through Christian materials was “more likely to occur in a Christian retail store than an outlet in any other channel, because this is the one that best integrates like-minded people in a common mission,” Adams said.

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