Christian retailers convened Wednesday, Jan. 8, for the first CPE at AmericasMart held in conjunction with the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market. The one-day event hosted by Munce Group, the Florida-based retail marketing group, helped to make navigating the gift show easier for Christian retailers and brought in non-gift vendors for the purpose of making time away from the store more productive.

Kirk Blank, president of Munce Group, said that vendor spaces were sold out with 28 of them setting up shop. Among the gift and distribution companies exhibiting at the one-day CPE were Anchor Distributors, Art & Soul Works/Gifts That Give Back, Barbour Publishing, Bob Siemon Designs, Christian Art Gifts, DaySpring, Kerusso, New Day Christian Distributors, Send the Light Distribution and Swanson Christian Products.

Retail participation, however, was not strong at the inaugural one-day CPE.

“We were encouraged by our vendors and encouraged by retailers to put something together so that there would be a common place to meet, a common place for publishers and non-gift vendors to be a part of and have it at one place that wouldn’t interfere with the regular flow of the mart,” Blank said. “So we worked with the mart to determine that Wednesday would be the best day for that, so we’re still in the process of figuring, is that the right decision, is that the right timing? Soon as we’re done with the show and get feedback, we’re going to figure that out.”

At CPE’s breakfast, retailers learned how to navigate the vast space that is AmericasMart from Albert Maslia, managing director-retail services for the mart. With 2,000 permanent showrooms and 4,000 temporaries, Maslia said it would take a full year to go through it all if buyers spent an average of 15 minutes per showroom.

He also advised buyers to know if they were dealing with a company or a rep group when placing orders and to get the order number, ship date and cancellation date specifically noted on each order placed at the show.

Maslia gave other tips on customer service and store layout. He pointed out that the number-one category in card and gift shops is ladies’ accessories.

This year buyers saw some technological advances at AmericasMart. Buyers could take advantage of new, free Wi-Fi and a mobile app available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

The introduction of the app follows more than two years of research, design and development to create a digital environment scaled to the needs and demands of buyers and sellers doing business across the 14 annual markets at AmericasMart’s 7.1 million-square-foot campus.

The app enabled buyers to discover and explore new and existing exhibitors, categories, lines and products and to make note of events and promotions. It allowed them to browse exhibitors by floor map or in a list, and enables them to record favorite lines and categories, and to plan, organize and manage show details.

Another addition was a built-in augmented reality scanner, which allowed buyers to connect to exhibitor information, pinpoint their location on campus, and add exhibitors and events from on-campus printed materials and signage to their plan scheduling tool.

Learn more about January’s CPE at AmericasMart in Christian Retailing’s upcoming February issue. The next CPE at AmericasMart will be held July 9-10.