A digital media company has told how Christian retailers have dramatically boosted music sales by adding in-store burning systems.

One store burned almost 700 accompaniment tracks in a single month, with a median total of 51, reported Integra Interactive after a survey of 270-plus users of its myMEDIA BurnBar (MMBB).

Stores that do not offer burnable backlist products "will continue losing revenue dollars," said Rick Poorman, owner of Footsteps store in Concord, N.C., in the Integra study report Digital Retailing in a Physical Store Environment.

Surveying MMBB users, Integra found out that retailers who had sold at least 100 CDs a month before adding accompaniment-track burning options saw track sales increase by almost 36%. Those previously selling less than 50 CDs a month saw sales go up 87%.

The Integra report said digital burning and delivery systems could "significantly help to level the playing field" and enable physical stores to compete better with online retailers. But burning music was only part of the picture: "Any products that can be put into a digital format can now be created on demand within the physical retail store."

Andrew Criswell, CEO of Pee Dee Christian Book & Supply in Florence, S.C., said in the report that since re-organizing to focus more on digital media and installing MMBB systems, sales had stabilized and begun to rise, "a trend not seen in our consumer music department in four years."

Read the full report in the July 7 issue of Christian Retailing International.

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