Automate Your Church Bookstore with Hot Technology
By: Lauren Hunter

If your church is anything like mine, automating your church bookstore, or book table, might not be top on your staff's priority list. As always, there are a plethora of other pressing tasks that always seem to rise to the top of the pile.

But as many churches now know, innovating your church through technology advancements is no longer an option; it is essential to survival. Not only can technology keep a church connected to its members, it can reduce the administrative burden that churches experience.

By using technology to streamline the church bookstore, pastors and staff members can remain focused on reaching out to their congregations and communities—to impact them and make a difference for Christ.

This said, regularly reviewing all areas of church ministry and evaluating them for effectiveness and purposefulness is crucial to maintaining a thriving church body.

In this article, we are going to take a look at your bookstore ministry and uncover ways to streamline inventory, track sales, increase sales, decrease labor costs and more, all through the implementation of bookstore management solutions.

Evolving Market
First, here is an overview of how the Christian bookstore technology industry has evolved.

For many years, bookstores around the country didn't use any type of inventory management software to track book sales, customer buying habits, sales trends, inventory control or purchase orders. There were a handful of software companies for the secular market, and some of the larger Christian retailers implemented these software applications to assist where they could, but there was nothing created specifically for the Christian retailer.

One innovator in the market was Randy Voorhees, an independent Christian retailer for 13 years. He took a leap and decided to harness his expertise to develop a Christian retail management solution that would handle many of the hassles that plagued his everyday life as a retailer.

"What I really disliked about the bookstore business was inventory control and tracking customer purchase behavior. When I realized how much time I spent managing this process, I was sure there had to be a better way to get the job done," said Voorhees, the developer of Bookstore Manager. "These experiences led me to design computer software that exclusively supports Christian bookstores."

The Change
Churches are often fearful that the technology needed will be too expensive, too difficult to learn, or too complex to maintain. Fear not. There are very simple solutions available. Today's falling hardware prices make computerizing an option for even the smallest church bookstore. Technology can and will improve your bookstore in significant ways.

While traditional cash registers served retailers well in years past, their inability to gather and maintain important business information in real time has caused the use of this time-honored product to dwindle.

If you are still using a traditional cash register, perhaps it is time to consider upgrading your technology to a point-of-sale (P.O.S.) system. While switching from a cash register to a computerized P.O.S. system may seem intimidating, advances in technology have made learning how to operate these systems relatively easy.

Church Focus
So, you might ask yourself how you know when you need to computerize your church bookstore. If you are asking the question, chances are, you probably need to make a change.

While bookstore management software is imperative for independent and large church bookstores, smaller stores need more assistance in determining whether or not they need to computerize.

Asking questions like these can be valuable in helping to determine what your organization needs:

* Do you find that you often run out of books that your customers frequently request?
* Do you find it difficult to track your sales and retrieve totals for the week/month/quarter/year in order to evaluate ministry effectiveness?
* Would you like to provide reports of sales and inventory to your church secretary in order to streamline the accounting processes necessary for your bookstore?

These are just a few questions that can help you to determine your church's need for bookstore management software. If you answered "yes" to more than one of these questions, then your organization is most definitely in need of bookstore management software.

Here is another helpful guideline. If you've been selling more than $2,000 a month and you are still using a cash box or an "old-fashioned" cash register to keep track of sales, let me invite you to step into the 21st century. A point-of-sale system makes completing sales transactions fast and easy, not to mention the vast assortment of management reports the software can provide.

You also might want to take a look at your inventory process. Do you hand-key each product into your computer, or do you utilize a Christian products database to make it simpler to enter the products you have on hand and need to order?

Regardless of your size, regardless of what your current processes are, I can guarantee you that if you haven't yet automated your church bookstore using an inventory management program, your ministry is in need of improvement.

While many of these offerings naturally appeal to larger stores, it is good to know that by automating your church bookstore with technology now, you can position your organization to grow—as quickly (or slowly) as you want it to. You can feel certain that you are implementing a retail management solution that can scale to meet your needs today and tomorrow.

Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer and public relations consultant dedicated to the faith-based technology market. For more details on Bookstore Manager, visit www.BookstoreManager.com.

Sidebar
Impacting Lives with Gifts
By Steve Mohler

The church retail area is a valuable resource for changing lives and providing products with daily reminders of Scriptures meaningful to each individual. The retail area can also be a financial resource for the church.

To impact lives and meet the wants and needs of the congregation, the gift product selection should be tailored to the lifestyles and tastes of the members and include self purchase gifts, products purchased for our gift-giving occasions, and products that are planned as a ministry opportunity.

The retail space should include a variety of wall décor, tabletop gifts, auto emblems, jewelry, and apparel. In each category, bestselling products recommended by sales reps and suppliers that correspond with the fashion tastes of the congregation should be attractively merchandised with complementary items to attract potential consumers into the store. Even in small retail areas, a limited selection of framed art, plaques and decorative crosses can be displayed to inform store guests of the availability of this product category. To increase the potential selection for retail guests, many suppliers will provide catalogs for use for special-order products, helping maintain lower inventories of home décor while providing a great selection. 

Many times, apparel, jewelry, tabletop gifts, and automotive accessories are impulse purchases, requiring a solid selection of these products appropriate for the selling season.  If the correct shirt, cross necklace, ring, glass desk accessory, framed print, figurine, or auto emblem is not in the store to catch the guest's eye, a sale will not be made. These are not products the guest will order for a later date.

Church retail stores must also prepare for gift giving associated with an occasion, such as birthdays, anniversaries, Mother's Day, Father's Day, confirmation, baptism, bereavement, Pastor Appreciation, staff and teacher recognition, and Christmas. For these occasions, the church retail space will need to provide the congregation and guests with greeting cards, photo frames, tabletop products, desk accessories, nativities, ornaments, and gift bags. These items should be displayed in a prominent, highly visible area of the store that changes in support of each occasion. Many suppliers will supply card racks or spinners and other display fixtures to maximize space and provide an attractive presentation.

Finally, the church retail store should also include supplies. Supplies will include Bible highlighters and markers, bookmarks, magnifiers, awards that teachers purchase for their students, pencils and pens, and note cards. All these items can be supplied by your gift vendors and can be included on orders for other gift items.

All gift products you stock should support the ministry of the church. Ensure the products available display a biblically based message. Remember, we want to provide daily reminders of God's love and presence in our lives.

Regardless of the retail space provided, all of these areas can be represented in your church to support the ministry and provide your congregation and guests with opportunities to spread the message.

Steve Mohler is the vice president of sales and marketing for Dicksons Gifts, www.dicksonsgifts.com.

Sidebar
Develop a "Simple Church" Library to Focus on Disciple Making
By Morlee Maynard

Have you discovered the book Simple Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples?

Some librarians have already attended leadership meetings to engage the Simple Church process for their own church. Others have been to associational or state convention training events featuring this book.

The Simple Church process is built around four elements. Here is the process in a nutshell:

"A simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus)."

Every church library team needs to consider this important disciple-making process and participate in the implementation of the process in their church. Each team should have the opportunity to participate in the process with the other ministry leaders of the church. Perhaps your team can model this process for the rest of the church. In order to prepare to do your part in the process, consider the simple church elements in the context of the church library.

Clarity
As a team, take time to study the Simple Church process. Involve your pastor or the staff person that serves as liaison to the library. How does your church make disciples? What role does the library ministry play in making disciples in your church? Work toward leading everyone on the church library team to understand the process and make a commitment to it.

Movement
Movement is the "sequential steps in the process that cause people to move to greater areas of commitment" (Rainer, p. 72). This element speaks to how each person is handed off from one commitment level to the next level. For example, how do the Sunday School leaders hand off the teachers to the library to use Bible study helps in lesson preparation? How does the library team hand off the teachers to training opportunities for teachers to learn how to use the Bible study helps? Or how do the disciple-making small groups hand off members to the church library to read books on study related subjects? Or how does the church library hand off parents who come to the library for parenting helps to disciple making small groups for parents? This list is endless. As a team, seriously consider your role in handing off your library customers to greater levels of commitment.

Alignment
The arrangement of all ministries around the same disciple making process is called alignment. That includes church libraries. Work alongside your church staff to identify significant ways the church library can align itself to this process. The more ways the library is seen in alignment to the process, the more important the library will be seen in the life of the church. For example, align the library to the mission and vision of the church instead of crafting your own mission and vision for the church library. Find out ways the library can radically assist the age level ministries, Sunday School, and disciple-making groups.

Focus
In the Simple Church, everything that does not align to the process will be abandoned. Find appropriate ways to communicate how the library is assisting the other ministries of your church. Communicate these avenues to the church family through strong promotional actions. Abandon all that you are doing that does not align to the mission, vision, and the disciple-making process of the church. How about your collection? When you select new titles, use the church's disciple-making process as a selection tool. Is your annual summer reading club aligned to the church's disciple-making process? What about your promotional activities?

A thorough examination of your library practices enables your library to focus on what God considers important to making disciples. Once you have discovered things to change, take action.

Morlee Maynard is national leader of the Church Library Ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources.

Product Roundup

RCL's Media Library Manager
RCL Software develops a comprehensive suite of products for the church, ministry, staff, teacher, and pastor. Media Library Manager is an automated library system for a church's library ministry. The program allows a church library to catalog all resources and maintain and track circulation for the resource and the user. Features include:
* User level security
* Barcode printing and scanning
* MARC lookup function
There are no limitations to the number of resources that can be entered, nor is there an annual maintenance fee or charge for upgrades.
www.rclsoftware.com

Adams Traditional Library by Hertz
The Adams Traditional Library offers a magnificent custom built look at an affordable price. The furniture is:
* Smart-looking
* Fully finished
* Integrated into the existing walls
The traditional moldings wrap around the front, top and sides of each bookcase grouping, meeting at mitered edges, creating a classic and dignified visual effect that is perfect for any library.
www.hertzfurniture.com

Retail Management Solutions from Bookstore Manager
Bookstore Manager is a leading provider of inventory management software for church bookstores. Similar to traditional cash registers, the Retail Management Solutions (RMS) software:
* Rings up sales
* Balances the cash drawer
* Captures and maintains significant store information
* Automatically updates store information
It was created specifically to assist church stores in analysis of inventory tracking, electronically purchasing products, and comparing yearly or monthly sales.
www.BookstoreManager.com/church

Jonti-Craft Revolving Literacy Towers
Available in large and small sizes, the Jonti-Craft Revolving Literacy towers inspire young readers by displaying a vast array of titles. The units feature:
* Six or 10 slots in each of the four sides
* Accommodations for magazines and tall books
* Ball bearing platform for smooth gliding
Units are 19.5 inches wide 19.5 inches deep by either 56.5 inches high or 38.5 inches high. 
www.jonti-craft.com

Smith Carrel
When carrels are a requirement, Smith Carrel's back-to-back model is an alternative to two standard individual units. The double-sided carrel uses the same amount of floor space as the standard single-sided carrel, but at approximately 70% of the cost of using two individual units. This makes it perfect for today's restricted budgets. The carrels are great for libraries, classrooms or any general work area. The units are
* Heavy duty
* Attractive
* Efficient
www.smithcarrel.com

ResourceMate 3.0
ResourceMate 3.0 is a solution to cataloging, searching and circulating your library resources. It is ideal for small to medium libraries, such as churches and synagogues. ResourceMate offers:
* Full cataloging features
* Searching features
* Circulating features
* Tools to save time and money
All versions include the popular Import from Internet / ISBN Retrieval / Library Search feature. 
www.resourcemate.com

Kerusso Ministry T-Shirts
Combine this direct and powerful message with a guitar pick and this t-shirt design is perfect for a music lover, worship leader or praise team member. Kerusso is a Greek word that means: "To herald divine truth as a public crier; to preach the gospel." Check out all of Kerusso's apparel and gifts, including guitar pick necklaces and individual guitar picks with Scripture on each pick. Their gifts are perfect for your:
*Church bookstore
*Product table
*Youth group
www.kerusso.com

Dicksons Gifts
Dicksons' new inline counter fixture, LIFE In the Fast Lane, is one of the most inventive displays to hit the industry, offering retailers a sleek, fashion forward design with great flexibility for the ever changing retail environment. The new LIFE In the Fast Lane fixture accommodates 144 to 166 cards, with at least 50% of the card design visible to the consumer. This increased visibility was designed to allow for easier shopping. 
* The casters with brakes on the fixture allow for easy mobility.
* The 67-inch fixture height will not interfere with store sight lines. 
* The fixture provides for more facings per square foot than traditional fixtures.
www.dicksonsgifts.com

Anthology
Anthology provides a total solution for booksellers and other retailers. Features include:
* Cash register
* Mail order
* Electronic ordering
* Internet stock check
* Barcode scanning and printing
* Credit card processing
* Physical inventory
* Customer relationship marketing
Other features include ecommerce, links to accounting packages, rentals, used book module and multi-store solution.
www.anthology.com