Operations+Systems by Eric Grimm //

Eric Grimm is CBA’s Retail Technology & Strategy Manager and chairman of the industry’s Christian Retail Solutions Committee.

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NEW DIGITAL WORLD WILL REQUIRE CONSTANT

INNOVATION FROM RETAILERS AND PUBLISHERS

DIGITAL REALITIES

As retailers move into the digital valley of

oblivion, fear not. The Shepherd’s rod and

staff comfort them, and the goodness and mercy of

innovation will follow them all the days of their lives.

Some interesting news at the ECPA Leadership

Summit conference: Christian stores remain the

strongest base of book sales than any other retail

channel—including Internet, mass merchandiser

and big-box booksellers. The findings parallel in-

formation CBA has seen recently: Christian stores

sell more units per store and they sell those units fast-

er than general-market retailers.

In one study CBA did tracking sales for the week ending Dec. 1, 2007—in the heart of the Christmas selling season—CBA tracked sales per store of the top 50-selling books from CROSS:SCAN. Of the top 50, only two titles sold more in the general market than in Christian stores: Joel Osteen’s Become a Better You and Jan Karon’s Home to Holly Springs. Four of the top 50 were sold only through Christian stores, and four other titles sold between one and two times more per store in Christian stores than trade stores: Five Love Languages, Quiet Strength, It’s All About Him, and The Purpose Driven Life.

Of the remaining titles, Christian stores sold more than twice that of trade stores.

R.R. Bowker’s new PubTrack Consumer busi-ness-intelligence services reported Christian Retail Channel stores sell about a third of all sales in a fragmented segment that includes virtually all retail outlets. Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher pointed out Christian stores are still the most solid sales outlet for Christian publishers.

However, on the heels of a three-year, 20% annual decline of physical music sales in stores as digital music sales rose dramatically, some digital woe-mongers don’t see a sunny future for booksellers.

The problem with the music phenomenon is that music companies spent so much time trying to ensure their rights were protected that they didn’t have any business models in mind to keep retailers in the loop. They scrambled to sell direct to consumers through their own Web sites as a competitive response to iTunes, but ended up

WHO’S MINDING THE GATE?

The Past

24 CBA Retailers+Resources | 06.08

Digital content delivery will blow to bits current publishing models—and consumers will hold the gate keys.

As technology enables books and book content to be delivered digitally, apprehensions are growing that what happened with digital music will happen with books. Video product is already being delivered digitally. The power shift to consumers now underway means book publishers won’t control content and formats as they do now.

Retailers and publishers need to dream and think bigger to figure out just what this means and what to do about it.

The Future

The Official Magazine of CBA