Anchor Distributors and Bridge-Logos have finalized a distribution and fulfillment services agreement with a target date of Sept. 1.

Representatives from both companies believe the partnership will maximize productivity, enabling Bridge-Logos to better focus on creating excellent products and Anchor to handle distribution logistics to an ever-expanding global market.

Christian Product Expo (CPE) returns Sept. 20-22 to “encourage, equip and engage” independent Christian retailers and vendors from across the country. Events include workshops, author meetings, concerts featuring popular Christian music artists and pre-screenings of upcoming films.

“By attending CPE, independent retailers can be encouraged, as well as equipped with new ideas from great training, so that they can be better engaged with suppliers and their communities,” said Kirk Blank, president of the Munce Group, which hosts the show.

Glory Haus’ new line, “Pickles with a Purpose,” launched earlier this month at AmericasMart Atlanta. The line was conceived by Glory Haus CEO Molly Holm’s 9-year-old son, Luke, who wanted to make enough money to purchase a home for a homeless man.

Luke started Pickles with a Purpose after befriending a man named Tim who worked for his mother’s company. Upon learning Tim was homeless, Luke knew he had to help. Luke decided to use his grandmother’s sweet-and-spicy pickles recipe to raise the funds he needed to build a house for Tim. This fundraiser grew into the “Pickles with a Purpose” line, which Glory Haus launched in April.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) lowered its 2015 retail sales forecast today but still predicted increased sales during the second half of the year. NRF forecast in February that retail sales would grow 4.1 percent in 2015 over 2014. However, unexpectedly slow growth during the first half of the year has forced the retail group to lower its forecast to 3.5 percent.

In 2014, NRF lowered its original sales estimate from a 4.1 to a 3.6 percent increase. In the end, retail industry sales grew 3.5 percent; the association's new estimate predicts similar growth this year.

Twenty-five percent of retailers cite Facebook as a top customer-acquisition platform, according to the State of Retailing Online 2015 study, conducted by Shop.org, Forrester Research and Bizrate Insights. While paid search and email marketing still top retailers’ list of effective customer-acquisition channels, social media has moved up the ranks to become an important tool for engaging with and attracting new customers.

Retailers are increasingly using social media to complement search, email and affiliate marketing tactics. Fifty-eight percent of retailers increased their year-over-year spending on social media marketing, second only to the number of companies who increased spending on search engine marketing (63 percent).

The Parable Group announced Monday that Bryce Richardson has joined its team as email and customer specialist. Richardson has a 6-year background in marketing and digital services with specialties in project management, statistical analysis, email coding/delivery, list segmentation and web design.

Richardson joins the Parable Group most recently from Henry Madison Research Inc., where he managed the IT and Digital Marketing departments. In his new role, he will serve on the Business Intelligence team and champion email services, drip campaigns and email appends. He will be instrumental in segmenting and managing robust consumer email lists.

Christian and gospel music reached 215 million people and every demographic group in the past month, according to new research unveiled by the Gospel Music Association (GMA).

Presented at the organization’s annual Immerse Conference on the LifeWay Christian Resources Nashville, Tennessee, campus, the GMA study, Gospel Music Association’s 2014 Christian & Gospel Music Industry Overview, shows that 68 percent of Americans listened to Christian or gospel music within the past 30 days. The genre is especially popular with African-Americans, with 93 percent having listened to gospel in the past year.