Christian retailers attending the CPE International in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, sat in on presentations on topics ranging from search engine optimization to inventory management.

Chris Rainey encouraged attendees not to be overwhelmed by social media but to take advantage of the big two, Facebook and Instagram, in raising awareness of their store. He offered four steps--plan, learn, engage and analyze--for stores to make full use of instead of ignoring social media in their priorities list. Google searches drive people to stores and help build traffic through Google My Business, Google Maps and more, so, Rainey said, retailers must have optimize their use of the search engine.

Rosalinda Rivera, CEO of New Life Enterprises, provided many tips and advice on marketing and customer service. She encouraged stores to offer free books for kids, inspirational titles or cookbooks in places, such as doctor's offices, that offer magazine for browsing. When stores provide these free books, the books should have the store sticker on them so that potential customers know where to get more of the same and similar books. 

Along with an abundance of ideas, such as using eventbrite.com to promote events with multiple authors together or creating a "selfie station" in the store and walking customers over to it to take their photo, Rivera urged retailers to consider what they can do for others, to give something back to them, instead of just building sales for the store.

Turning to inventory management, Steven Ammons from Bookstore Manager, challenged retailers to be sure they actually know what products are in their stores, what they've sold and, subsequently, what they need to reorder. 

"If you don't know what's in your store, you're not going to have good customer service," he said.

He also advised retailers to stay in touch with their sales reps, consider being part of a marketing group and inquire about joining the Facebook group called "Christian Retail Help Center."

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