Christian Retailing

Product Intelligence Tours offer strategies and tools Print Email
Written by By Andy Butcher, DeWayne Hamby and Eric Tiansay   
Monday, 24 August 2009 12:56 PM America/New_York
Presentations provide retailers with merchandising and marketing tips for store departments

product intelligence tourCBA's 60th summer convention debuted a series of Product Intelligence Tours. Sponsored by suppliers, the 30-minute presentations offered retailers merchandising and marketing tips in the areas of apparel, Bibles, fiction, gifts, home entertainment and music.

"This was a great way for suppliers like us to share specific knowledge from their particular niche," said Bill White, director of sales for NOTW (Not of This World) apparel, who presented the workshop on apparel. "The attendees appreciate the information and knowledge they pick up."

 

Gifts

Retailers can make an impact with gift merchandising by using seasonal displays, fabric, floral, "great tools" such as acrylic risers and furniture pieces to spotlight their inspirational gifts section, according to Michelle Amster, president of store design firm Integra GP.

"Sometimes you need to think outside the box on display items," she said. "One of the goals is to make people feel at home, so what better way than to use (furniture) items that (customers) may have in their home."

Amster also advised retailers to "purchase with purpose" at the show. "Don't just wander the floor here or at gift market and purchase randomly," she said. "Make a plan, and stick with it. Only purchase products for the displays you've planned for.

"If you see something that you think will sell well in your store that you were not planning to get, you should delete something you were planning to get. If it's in the back room, it is not really for sale in your store."

During the gift merchandising seminar, Amster asked the gift sellers to break up in groups to help create an attractive display of themed gifts—featuring wedding, baby, Easter, Christmas and Father's/Mother's Day products—in five separate tables.

She added that it is important to merchandise gifts by theme. "In today's busy world, some shoppers get frustrated having to look through all of the gifts to find what they are looking to purchase," Amster said.

"You should put some unexpected items in unexpected places to remind shoppers of the breadth of your inventory—CDs in the baby and wedding area, Father's Day items in your Mother's Day display to get them thinking about their dad. These are not mistakes, they are subtle idea starters."

 

Apparel

Dressing up windows, walls, tables and cash register displays can help retailers give their inspirational clothing section a professional presentation—according to Bill White, director of sales for NOTW (Not of This World) apparel, which also has C28 stores in California.

He advised retailers to "stock only enough." "It is a proven merchandising fact that limited size runs produce more sales," White said. "Try and keep a normal size run. This looks good on the arm and is offering just the right selection of each size."

He added that it is imperative to rotate stock. "Constantly rotate your outfits and items on the wall," he said. "It is amazing the difference in appearance that it makes. There will always be new combos and new positions to rotate on the wall. Just think of how many outfits you personally make with one shirt."

White also encouraged store representatives to utilize mannequins. "Change the mannequins weekly, always dressing them in new arrivals, and most importantly keeping them seasonally correct," he said. "Do not dress them in hoodies when it is 100 degrees outside or tanks when it is below zero. Detail your mannequins—add a handbag and shoes or backpack and hat for a completed look. Keep accessories clean and simple."

Annette Rajskup—who opened Hanford Bible and Gifts in Hanford, Calif., in December 2007—said the apparel seminar was "very informative."

"I like the fact that NOTW has stores, so they know what works and doesn't work when it comes to merchandising apparel," she said. "I'm not using mannequins right now, but I'll start because of what I learned."

 

Fiction

Fiction buyers are the most frequent purchasers in Christian bookstores, said Steve Oates, vice president of marketing for Bethany House Publishers.

During the Product Intelligence Tour on fiction, Oates gave a detailed assessment of fiction buyers and how to serve them in local bookstores.

"In a world where only 20%-25% of Christian books are sold through a Christian bookstore, how can I become the store of choice for the Christian fiction customer?" he asked.

Oates encouraged retailers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, while developing a relationship with customers. For customers asking about future releases in series—a common query among Christian fiction readers—Oates suggested stores respond by offering a $1 discount for those willing to place a pre-release order.

Addressing the weaknesses of big-box stores compared to Christian retail, Oates highlighted the difficulty in shipping books to general market chains compared to Christian bookstores' shipments. "Barnes & Noble still can't get it as quickly as you can on your shelves," he told retailers.

Jeanette Webster, owner of Source of Light Bible Bookstore in Jamaica, said the seminar would help her market fiction in her store. She said price point, however, was still a major concern.

"As a Third World country, I'd rather have the price points lower," she said. "My younger customers are looking for books in their price range."

She added that younger shoppers are also looking for fiction in more contemporary settings.

 

Music

Introducing new artists to the market was the focus for EMI CMG's Les Coughran and retailer Gunnar Simonsen.

Retailers at their workshop were presented with EMI CMG's new "Now Hear This" promotion, a multi-phase program that introduced stores to new artists. Retailers learned that they could offer six-song CDs from new artists for $5, or 10-plus-song CDs for $7.99. The music was promoted through 12-plus song sampler CDs, released quarterly, with suggested retail price of $1.99, but given away with the purchase of a new music CD.

Artists featured in the promotion included Sarah Reeves, Danyew, Josh Wilson, Phillip LaRue, Above the Golden State, Kristian Stanfill, Christy Nockels and Future of Forestry.

Coughran said the program emphasized new artists because "if we don’t break new artists, we don’t have a future in music."

Simonsen, general manager of the Christian Supply Centers in the Pacific Northwest, followed Coughran's presentation, sharing the benefits of social media in music promotion.

Simonsen advised retailers to maximize their music promotions with new technologies such as announcing music release events via Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, as well as offering in-store text messaging discounts to shoppers.

He also said stores should build their own free Facebook pages to help themselves stay in touch with their customers.

 

Bibles

Because most shoppers who enter a Christian bookstore looking for a Bible leave without purchasing one, the Bibles presentation looked at ways for retailers to help remove customer confusion.

Crossway Director of Sales Bill Anderson presented statistics on Bible sales, explaining that Bible sales account for 15% of a bookstore's business.

Although he acknowledged that his company had "come pretty late" to Bible sales—debuting the English Standard Version (ESV) translation in 2001—he offered suggestions on marketing.

"Where the Bible department is in your store is crucial," he said, adding that Bibles are typically the products that generate the most questions from customers.

Anderson also gave retailers some questions to consider in how to market their Bibles, whether categorizing them by translations, felt needs or a mix of the two.

He also encouraged retailers to ask customers, "How will you use this Bible?"

Anderson spoke on Crossway's recent success with the ESV and the ESV Study Bible. The company's Bible sales have increased 94% from the previous 12 months, he said, also noting that 55% of its Bibles sales came through Christian retail. "You are very important to us," he said.

Betty Ligon of Victory Christian Center in Philadelphia attended the workshop and said it was "definitely" worth the time and $10 admission. Ligon attended the seminar because she loved Bibles and wanted "to learn how to sell them more effectively."

 

Home Entertainment

Retailers need to reorganize their DVD sections to make the most of the opportunity of the growing category, said Bob Elder, executive vice president and chief operating officer at media agency Propeller Consulting.

Pointing to a near-doubling in DVD sales at Christian retail stores in the first half of 2009—largely but not exclusively due to the success of Fireproof—he advised stores to divide the movies they offer into separate subcategories, rather than simply presenting them all in alphabetical order.

"The truth is, most of the videos that are available to help build your category don't really have the awareness that a theatrical box office will bring." he said, but "most of them are really good stories that are under-represented."

Elder also spotlighted an important new subcategory that is emerging—what he called "inspirational short films" like Rob Bell's "Nooma" series.

Such titles were "still between the church resource section and the music section; we are not really sure what to do with this."

With many books becoming the basis of DVD-based studies, Elder said that retailers should promote the viewing resources in their book sections, too, where consumers who were "fans of the authors, of that brand" might be drawn to check out the other materials.

Elder said stores looking to develop DVD sales should build a category, build a team that knows the subcategories and major releases, and build an audience among shoppers.

Staff could be informed about series by watching the trailers, to help them talk about the titles with shoppers.