Contact: Michael Regennitter COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – CBA and FIND IT LOCAL TODAY are pleased to announce their partnership in promoting the Christian products channel nationwide. CBA will be co-branding the FIND IT LOCAL TODAY program that will further promote the entire Christian-store network as a trusted source for Christian products nationwide. The program will be promoted by CBA at the June International Christian Retail Show in St. Louis, MO, as well as in various other means available to the association in lead-up to the annual convention.
The Covenant Group, a leading provider of retail marketing services and solutions for Christian stores, developed and announced the program a few weeks ago. As an industry-wide initiative open to all Christian-store retailers (independents, chains, etc.), the program leverages consumer traffic on publishers’ websites to the advantage of local Christian retail stores. Research presented at a spring Evangelical Christian Publishers Assoc. conference revealed publishers’ consumer-direct sales market share has increased 4%. More than a dozen leading Christian publishers have agreed to feature the FIND IT LOCAL TODAY link on their sites when it is launched.
A threshold of 400 retail locations is needed to launch the service and effectively support customer inquiries flowing from publisher sites. The network would connect those customers to Christian products in their “local” area. The Covenant Group drove the original concept and development. Chuck Wallington, The Covenant Group president, said, “The response from both the publisher community and Christian retailers has been overwhelming. When CBA reviewed the program, they immediately recognized the potential benefit it could bring to our channel, and have literally done everything possible to help us increase the reach and effectiveness of the program. We are both delighted to partner with CBA on this new venture, and so appreciative of their desire to do anything that strengthens the stores in our industry. Truly, this is the heart a trade association should reflect for their membership.”
CBA’s Curtis Riskey said, “Christian stores are rapidly adopting new technologies to serve consumers who have new expectations about how to connect with retailers. This technology is a way for any consumer to find a Christian store and buy locally. We are pleased to support such bold initiatives and look for continued growth of technical capability and sales to local Christian stores.” Retailers that wish to be featured on publisher sites, a key benefit of the new program, are encouraged to obtain more information and enroll at the service’s website. Stores pay a small onetime set-up fee to enroll, and then an annual fee. Wallington said, “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.”
Full details on pricing are available online at www.FindItLocalToday.net. The program is slated for launch in the early summer once minimum store counts are attained.
This program is in partnership between CBA Service Corporation, a for profit subsidiary of CBA, and the Covenant Group.
For more information, visit http://FindItLocalToday.net, or e-mail retailers@FindItLocalToday.net |