CBA Industry Blog

ICRS '09 Preview

There are years when planning for the International Christian Retail Show takes precedence over all other job responsibilities here at CBA. This has been one of those years – not just for me but for everyone on staff. The need to have a trade show that delivers tangible take-aways and finely tuned business solutions is one of the driving forces behind why prepping for ICRS has taken over our daily calendars leading up to the industry’s largest event.

Dean Edwards, CBA’s data guru, often says he deals in the “cornflakes” of life while at work. That is, he’s messing around in the soggy, sometimes indecipherable details of data. Cornflakes abound for everyone during ICRS season though. It’s easy to get stuck in the details and not see the big picture of what’s happen and how things are shifting. At least it feels that way for me this time of the year.

As tedious as the cornflakes can be, they are paramount to delivering those aforementioned tangible take-aways and finely tuned business solutions. If we didn’t traverse through the cornflakes, we wouldn’t gather together next week. And what has come from the cornflakes is exciting this year.

Music Best Practices

In correlation with the April CBA Retailers+Resources feature articles on entertainment today, CBA has created a Top Ten list of Music Best Practices. Focusing on keeping the right business practices in music is crucial right now. It is often easy to divert one’s attention to so many different directions as a retailer, and one way the symptoms of this lack of focus show up is in declining music sales for stores. By keeping focused and implementing even just a few of these changes, stores’ music sections can be revived and transformed. If you have other suggestions or best practices, as always, let us know what you’re doing.

1. Always have best selling music on-hand—use best seller lists based on direct customer sell through like CBA’s Custom Inventory Accelerator, CROSS:SCAN and Above the Treeline provide, or the best seller list in Retailers + Resources Magazine.

2. Always have music some music on sale at a reduced price—create the perception that you do have music product on sale—look for music specials from distributors of remainder products.

3. Use Christian radio to hookup with Christian music lovers—over half of our Christian music buyers (57% from 2007 Sound Decisions research) listen to Christian radio everyday—83% listen every week—89% listen every month.

Relaunch for 2009!

With the whirlwind of the holidays and 2008 behind us now, we’re relaunching the CBA Industry Blog with a whole new strategy and vision. For the year ahead, here’s a sneak peak at where we’re headed and why you – our readers – are more important to us than ever before…

New success stories from within the Christian retail industry
Few things help more than hearing from others in your same position what they’re doing to succeed these days. We’ll be bringing in more guest bloggers and telling their stories on creative, unique solutions to finding success.

Behind-the-scenes peeks at channel-wide exclusives
With the success of projects like Tyndale’s Operation Worship, we’ll be bringing you behind-the-scenes stories on how these exclusives are affecting the Christian retail industry, along with new exclusives like Campaign Financial Aid.

Stats, stats, and more stats!
Given the growth of CROSS:SCAN and CBA’s new partnership with Bowker, having more fresh data available about consumer habits is now easier than ever. We’ll be combing through the data to bring you relevant nuggets that apply directly to your business.

Show news
ICRS is coming up fast, and we can’t wait to see you in Denver this summer. We’ll be using the blog to bring you even more content on how the Show is your resource for success this year.

CBA Initiatives
We have a lot going on this year and we can’t wait to tell you all about them. One of the most exciting initiatives that CBA is launching this year is CBA Connect, a tool to help retailers train staff and better connect with customers to increase sales.

And… connecting with you!
A blog is only effective when its members are being engaged and gaining something valuable. We want to know what’s valuable to you and help provide that information. Comment here or email us.

Can’t wait to launch 2009 with you!

The CBA Team

CyberMonday sales up 180% for some stores

DeeperCalling Media, LLC, reported a network-wide sales increase of 180% over the same sales figures last year across all their stores for CyberMonday. A CBA-member store with a brick-and-mortar location along with an online store saw a 344% increase in their online sales. Some brick-and-mortar stores far exceeded the 180% average sales increase by seeing online sales increases of as much as 4,672% over last year’s figures.

Bill Goodyear, VP of product development at DeeperCalling, believes that there are still plenty of opportunities for retailers to find new markets and multi-channel selling is one of the best ways to attract those new customers. “Our figures are showing that we are attracting new customers at a rate that equals that of last year,” Goodyear said. “There are a large number of gaps in the market that are available to those that actively search and seek them out.”

The Shift to Thrift

Coupons are cool again, according to the latest WSL Strategic Retail: How America Shops Everyday Pulse. Of all the consumers surveyed in this report, a full 52% of them said they are proud of the little ways they can save money, such as clipping and using coupons they have found both online and in circulars. While coupons and other cost-savings techniques like cooking at home and not going out as often seem reminiscent of something a 1960s housewife might do, WSL claims both modern women and men are hunting for small ways to save money this Christmas, regardless of income. As WLS puts it, this is an “equal opportunity recession.”

As most consumers “shift to thrift” this holiday season, CBA Training and Consulting Manager Mike Hockett believes the need for coupons will continue to increase and stores can take advantage of this demand in numerous ways. Here’s Mike’s Top 10 list when it comes to incorporating coupons into retailers’ marketing strategies next month: