IBS-STL initiative will link congregations to its warehouse , offers ‘new paradigm’ for retailers

United Kingdom

Malcolm Stockdale hopes to move the marketplace into the church with customized “Webshops” across the U.K.

The former chief of the Wesley Owen bookstore chain—part of IBS-STL UK—is now busy setting up a new charitable foundation to help churches enter the digital age, with an official launch set for the fall.

By using the online community software of ChurchInsight—whose programming helps non-technical people run Web sites—congregations will be able to host stores on their own Web sites. The retail section will look like part of the church’s ministry, but customers will receive their purchases from the IBS-STL UK warehouse in Carlisle.

“What we want to create is the ability for churches to have self-funding Web sites,” said Stockdale, explaining that churches will receive a commission from sales that originated through their shop. “We’re slowly putting things in place,” he added. “We want to do collaborations with other people. It’s very exciting. I think it’s the future.”

Publishers with whom he had shared the idea were “all excited,” he said. Stockdale has a wealth of experience in the wider trade—he was managing director of Wesley Owen for seven years, and previous to that had spent 25 years working with the major British high street chain Marks & Spencer.

But that time has also been marked by a dramatic shift in the U.K. shopping culture, as people started selling online.

“There’s a huge move toward MP3, video and PDF—all that sort of stuff,” Stockdale told Christian Retailing. “It’s trying to look at what the next chapter is in this whole cycle of selling.”

Stockdale said he believed that the new church Webshops could work alongside the U.K.’s existing brick-and-mortar Christian bookstores. But, he added, stores “have got to be aware there will be other ways of doing business.”

Bookstores could even have their own Web sites and create interactive environments using the Church Insight application, he said. “There are shops that are interested in moving forward,” Stockdale said. “It’s a new paradigm.”

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