CBA is offering to provide special reports from its new data service that can help the African-American market.

CROSS:SCAN (Christian Retail Official Sales Statistics) is able to supply specific details of weekly sales in urban and other African-American stores, it was announced at last night's Authors Personality Celebration hosted by the Christian African-American Booksellers Association (CAABA).

The move was outlined by CBA's Director of Communications and Marketing Leon Wirth, who said CROSS:SCAN's aggregate sales reports sales of books, Bibles, music and videos could be isolated for CAABA members who sign up for the program.

CBA was “excited” about the potential to help African-American stores in this way, said Wirth. The data could help CAABA stores get a clearer picture of the collective buying power of their constituency.

The information could be valuable not only to retailers but to suppliers “so they can know what the needs are,” said CAABA Chairwoman Evelyn Curtiss, who welcomed the CROSS:SCAN initiative as “an excellent opportunity.”

“A lot of times we operate without important data,” she said. “This is a way to enable us to find out what is actually selling in urban stores

CBA announced CROSS:SCAN last year as a response to members' concerns about the existing use of Christian retail chain data. “We really believe that retail data belongs to retailers,” Wirth said. “It's a retail asset and ought to be used to help retailers.”

CBA said that around 500 stores are currently signed up for CROSS:SCAN and receiving the weekly aggregated reports that also show the overall best-sellers across all four categories.

Around 70 people attended CAABA's author reception, sponsored by publishers Abingdon Press, R.H. Boyd, CLC Publications, Judson Press and Moody Press. Speakers included authors Dr. Alyn E. Waller (Enjoy Your Journey, CLC) and Joanna McGee-Bradford (The Father's Voice, Lift Every Voice/Moody).

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