Emphasis on electronic publishing, social media 'just enough' for stores

Christian bookstore representatives were brought up to speed on technology as the convention had a significant emphasis on digital publishing, social media and visual entertainment.

Besides several workshops that spotlighted the importance of using social media, the show offered a session that featured a panel of industry leaders and digital experts to discuss the future of the Christian retail store in terms of today's increasingly digital environment.

David Amster, chief innovation officer of the digital media company Integra Interactive who led the "Drill Down: Digital Solutions" workshop, told Christian Retailing that the emphasis on digital technology was "warranted, but the information presented must be practical for the independent retailer."

"If the top 300 independent retailers cannot reasonably implement it, it is not useful to the CBA channel," he said.

Marcie Chamness, owner of Trinity Christian Gifts & Books in Richmond, Ind., believed "there was just enough" focus on digital technology at ICRS.

"A lot of the bookstores are owned by older people," she said. "Not that that's bad or good, but most do not have the techie experience. I still feel that most people want to see and feel the books. The younger generation are the technology geeks, but they are not coming into the bookstores.

"Hence, that's where the techie stuff comes in," Chamness added. "Unfortunately, we are losing that type of business. So what they did was get our feet wet with that information."

Integra Interactive launched and promoted several offerings at the convention for its myMEDIA BurnBar in-store burning systems, including personalized mix playlists, Books 2-Go audiobook visual merchandising and its new Lifestyle Gift CD programs.

Amster said a select group of stores has agreed to test the Lifestyle Gift CD program this fall.

"The customer selects a card and then scans the card on the BurnBar Touchpoint kiosk," he said. "The customer can then select the songs they want and put a personalized message of up to 100 characters on the front. The card's artwork is the CD cover art. Initially, we have created cards for more than a dozen categories with multiple cover art images for each category."

In his educational session, Amster noted that digital music sales was projected to comprise 50% of all music sales this year. Regarding digital technology, Amster said that "you can do nothing and absolutely be left behind.

"We are no longer on the bleeding edge of digital technology about the use of digital media kiosks," he said. "We are at the point where people know about them and are asking for them."

A completely new department within the store is emerging called the digital media center, he said, "which makes extensive use of visual merchandising to present 'fake' representations of products for shoppers to pick up and view, and then have them created on demand.

"A key component to this emphasis is capitalizing on the strong trend of personalization."

Rich Hauhuth—director of online sales & marketing for Innovative, a leader in providing Web sites to retailers—said the company promoted several new offerings at the show, including resources for retailers to interface their Signature Websites with their Facebook and Twitter social-networking accounts.

Elsewhere, Bookstore Manager celebrated its 20th anniversary at ICRS. Founded in 1990, Bookstore Manager offers technology solutions including inventory control, point of sale (P.O.S.) and customer kiosks for Christian retail stores.

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