Christian retailers were challenged yesterday to consider overhauling their Bible departments to capture lost sales.

Presenting the results of a major study on Bible sales in the second International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) Super Session, Nelson Bibles Senior Vice President and Publisher Wayne Hastings referred to previous research that found around half of those who went into a Christian store to buy a Bible left without having done so because they were overwhelmed by the selection.

Hastings asked retailers whether they were “willing to break some paradigms” to become more customer-friendly.

They needed to focus on the “giftability” and “readability” of the Bibles they offered, Hastings said, in light of the new study which found 61% of Bible purchases at Christian stores were gifts, and buyers were also Bible-study “zealots” for whom features such as fonts, portability and typesetting were important.

The research carried out by The Barna Group also revealed that only 20% of Bible purchasers also bought greeting cards while they were in the stores-meaning many stores had missed an opportunity to cross-merchandise the same transaction to the others who had bought a Bible as a gift.

With an average $33 ticket for a Bible, price was not as important an issue as many believed, Hastings said. “Too many times we have been lulled into the thought that we have to have everything on sale; that's what going on in the world,” he said. “But you are a specialty store. They come to you because you are the expert.”

Hastings said the results of the Nelson/Barna study could “revolutionize the way your department merchandises and how you sell Bibles. With just a few changes you could have tremendous impact on that 50%, 40%, 30% (of people that are) leaving your store disappointed.”

Nelson has been introducing a planned new Bible merchandising system to retailers throughout the week. CBA President Bill Anderson said Bible customers “need clarity” and that retailers could “let the whole store sell Bibles” by appropriate cross-merchandising.

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