Thomas Nelson sends pop-up alerts, Spring Arbor Distributors encourages broader selection

Suppliers have been stepping up efforts to help independent Christian retailers remain competitive, as other channels continue to erode their sales base.

Thomas Nelson's Hot Off the Press offers pop-up alerts on product-related breaking news to stores that download the system created by the publisher's Christian retail sales division. The application will also send out notices of upcoming author appearances and features a link that allows retailers to place orders if they decide to increase inventory levels in the light of what they learn.

In addition, the Christian sales group has created TNIndies on Facebook and Twitter to enable stores to interact and learn more about using social media in their businesses.

"We are opening up a line of communication that will be a 'win-win' for retailers, and Thomas Nelson in helping our customers increase their consumer traffic and customer base," said Russ Schwartz, director of sales for Thomas Nelson Christian independent retail. "In these fast-changing times at retail, we all need to make sure we are adapting to meeting our customers' needs."

The Hot Off the Press service is similar to Spring Arbor Wire, launched last year by Spring Arbor Distributors (SA), whose rebranding, with a broader focus, has been a success, according to Skip Prichard, president and CEO of parent company, Ingram Content Group.

The LaVergne, Tenn.-based business has been "going well" since getting a makeover last summer, he told Christian Retailing. Prichard attributed that in part to SA's having increased the range of gifts, family DVDs, music and church supplies available to help differentiate stores. Books that "might not be deemed 'Christian' " like Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken—the biography of Olympian and war hero Louie Zamperini—had done well for some stores, Prichard said.

He encouraged Christian retailers to consider expanding their children's resources, too, as parents were "looking for the bookstore to curate and provide value, to tell me what is acceptable." That could include other than specifically Christian materials. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar is not something that you would call a Christian book, but it's a wonderful book."

Such resources were more readily available to Christian stores through SA, he said, since IGC had restructured so that Christian products could be better distributed to any channel and other general market products could in turn be accessed by Christian stores. "We want to do everything we can to help Christian stores survive and thrive," said Prichard.

In a separate move, Thomas Nelson is also running an "On The House" sweepstakes in a promotion designed to help brick-and-mortar retailers, including Christian bookstores, increase traffic to their stores.

Running through April 30, the sweepstakes will "expose customers to wide selection of Thomas Nelson's books, with a chance to win great prizes"—according to Thomas Nelson Senior Vice President of ABA Sales Rick Spruill, who came up with the idea.

Customers who purchase a title from the Nashville-based publisher with a sweepstakes sticker in the back will win one of thousands of prizes, including electronic tablets, e-readers, a Thomas Nelson library and e-book downloads. A free mail-in entry option is also available, and winners will be randomly drawn to receive the prizes. 

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