A pioneer Christian retail store has found a way to win back business lost to the Internet.

Baker Book House's Amazon Challenge has boosted its income from local church accounts and drawn interest from other stores wanting to replicate the program.

Launched last year at the well-known Grand Rapids, Mich., store—which dates back 70 years—the initiative promises to beat the leading online retailer’s rates if the congregation will agree to make its purchases through Baker Book House.

The Amazon Challenge was designed after the store discovered that receipts from some established church accounts had plummeted. "I noticed that our number 2 church account had fallen to 82," said Louis McBride, the store's academic book buyer and a member of its church relations team. "For them to drop off by that amount raised some eyebrows."

When he made contact with the church, McBride learned that it was buying resources "almost exclusively through Amazon." Baker Book staff brainstormed and came up with an offer: they would beat Amazon's prices by at least 2% and deliver for free, if the church would give the store a year's business.

The offer was presented to around a dozen churches, and has seen success. "The best so far is a church that was number 332 on our list," McBride said. "Now it’s at 46, with a 700% increase in sales."

Initially the program was aimed at just preventing lost sales. "Sometimes we are seeing (just) 5-10% on sales, but that's something I didn't have at all before, when they were buying from Amazon, so we will take that," McBride said. But the store has found it has seen additional business, too.

What's more, the program has ended up saving the churches money, too. "The biggest surprise was finding out not all titles Amazon has are discounted, but sometimes are 15-20% more," depending on the purchase discount offered by suppliers, McBride said. For their part, churches just assumed they were automatically getting a better deal from Amazon, he said.

The Amazon Challenge pilot program, restricted to reading and study materials, may now be extended further afield. The store has fielded inquiries from other retailers who have heard about it and wanted to see the details. "The biggest question is, is it manageable? Are we still keeping a good margin?"

The Baker Book team has been "very happy" with the results, McBride said. "We are making more money than we thought." Often staff will personally deliver orders to local churches, giving them further opportunities to connect with pastors and leaders there.

One of the churches that participated in the trial was Cornerstone Church in Caledonia, Mich., about 10 miles from the store. Director of Groups Bonnie Anderson said that leadership at the church had decided to give the program a go for its pricing and customer service benefits.

In addition, though, they had appreciated "the team relationship with the employees of Baker—the service has been wonderful." The church had since teamed with the store in other ways, with Baker Book setting up a mini-store at the church one time so members could purchase Bibles in response to a particular sermon message. Anderson said she had mentioned the program to other churches, too.

The program was applauded, too, by Larry Avery, senior account executive with Grand Rapids-based Zondervan. "I was excited to see that they were going after church business," he said, because Christian bookstores were "vitally important" in serving the local community.

"Sales at online outlets have impacted Christian retailers. That's why stores like Baker need to be innovative to recapture those sales," he said.

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