Find It Local Today is ‘a win-win-win’ for shoppers, publishers and stores

Christian retailers unhappy with publishers selling directly to consumers now have an advocate. 

Covenant Group has announced a new online, industry-wide initiative that aims to “leverage the consumer traffic” from Christian publishers’ websites towards Christian stores. 

Available to Christian independents and chains, not just Covenant-member stores, Find It Local Today (FILT) was slated for official launch last month—coinciding with the International Christian Retail Show in St. Louis. Retailers who join FILT must pay a one-time set-up fee of $100 per account, and a minimal ongoing subscription fee of $10 per month or $100 annually. 

“This program, which we have asked our supporting publishers to list as the first or primary ‘where to buy’ option on their websites, will give our retail stores a key position before consumers’ eyes on those publisher sites,” said Chuck Wallington, Covenant Group founder and president who came up with the idea for FILT earlier this year. 

“With the title of our link focusing attention on the ‘shop local’ appeal, as well as the instant gratification aspect, we feel it will give us a strong opportunity to be ‘in the game’ in terms of competing with other options including major online competitors,” added Wallington, who is also owner of Christian Supply in Spartanburg, S.C. 

CBA President Curtis Riskey told Christian Retailing that FILT is “a good concept,” and the association will help promote it.

“CBA will provide information and publicity about the program,” he said. “All of retail is trying to adapt to technology-enabled consumers, and CBA supports innovative experiments that keep brick-and-mortar stores in the technology loop. Christian stores must be able to connect with customers through technology at all points of the customer’s purchasing process.”

FILT has already enrolled leading publishers, including Thomas Nelson, Zondervan, Baker Publishing Group, Tyndale House Publishers, David C Cook, Abingdon Press, Barbour Publishing, Harvest House Publishers, Moody Publishers and Whitaker House. 

“The response from the publisher community has been both immediate and overwhelming,” said Wallington, noting that there is no cost for publishers. “Almost every publisher we have approached has not just agreed to participate, but readily agreed. I think our publishers are increasingly seeing the benefit of helping strengthen the Christian retail channel, and the ones we have enrolled are certainly stepping up to the plate to do so.” 

David Lewis, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Baker Publishing Group, told Christian Retailing that the publisher supports the initiative.

“We don’t have the actual number of referrals to online stores since we have changed our website during the past year, but based upon the last quarter, our estimate is that we have made over 100,000 referrals to online stores over the past year,” he said. 

“In areas where local merchants and their local government have worked together to promote ‘Buy Local,’ the smaller retailers in those locations have actually grown,” Lewis added. “We hope that this campaign will continue to have the same impact in 2013 for the CBA stores. We strongly encourage every retailer to participate because we think is will help their sales, and their continued success is important to us and the book industry.” 

Stephen Koenig, vice president of eCommerce for HarperCollins Christian Publishing, parent company of Thomas Nelson and Zondervan, said both publishers also support FILT.

“Thomas Nelson and Zondervan are always looking for ways to help our independent retail partners,” he said. “We see supporting the Find It Local Today initiative as another way to do that. We are proud to say that we refer thousands of customers to our retail partners each year.”

Bill Nielsen, chief operating officer of Berean Christian Stores, part of the Covenant Group, said FILT is a good idea.

“Berean will be participating and we hope to see two to four incremental transactions per store per month,” he said. “This is a program we are pleased to support and would encourage others to as well since it represents a great marriage or retail and supplier. In times like this, we need to come together as an industry whenever possible. Berean has seen strong comp store increases since November and we hope this will help us continue this positive trend.”

Wallington said enrolling in FILT should be “a no-brainer” for retailers.

“The annual fee is less than you’d pay for a decent-sized ad in a local high school annual, and you have the potential to have your store available as a shopping option to literally hundreds of thousands of consumers visiting publisher websites each year,” he said. 

“This is a win-win-win situation” Wallington added. “The consumer wins because they are offered the viable option of shopping local and getting their requested product immediately if they choose. The Christian retailers win because they can now demonstrate to potential customers in their trading area looking on publisher sites, not only their store location, but the availability of the very product that customer is seeking. The publishers win because they are both offering a local, immediate purchasing option to the customers interested in their products, but also lending their practical support and vital endorsement of local Christian retail as well.”

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