CBA Retail Membership:

Benefits of Membership

There are so many benefits to membership with CBA! From the crucial information presented in CBA Retailers+Resources magazine to CBA's indispensable data programs to the cutting-edge training platform, membership is vital for anyone doing business in the Christian Retail Channel today.

Click on the links below to access more information on membership:
Christian Retailer Membership Benefits Kit
Affiliate Retailer Membership Benefits Kit
Prospective Retailer Membership Benefits Kit

And to flesh out the whole story, here's the true tale of how CBA membership dramatically changed one retailer's business....

Why should I be a member of CBA?
As told by Curtis Riskey, CBA executive director and owner of BASIC Books and Café

I became a member of CBA before my store even opened in 2000. I knew I needed the expertise and counsel of an association that could provide me with the tools and resources to steer me in the right direction and help me avoid some costly and potentially fatal mistakes. Proverbs 15:22 advises, “Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.” This is exactly the kind of help I needed as I embarked on a new business plan, a new store opening, and a new Kingdom-building opportunity for my community.

Basic Books and Café has been open for more than eight years now. The wise counsel I originally sought enabled the store to grow and succeed, so why should I continue to be a member of CBA? In all honesty, a lot of the same reasons still apply… as a retailer, I still need the expertise and counsel that CBA can give me to help navigate through this difficult economy and steer clear of potentially fatal mistakes. As challenging as this economy is, there are still many stores finding success and sharing those “best practices” with CBA so that others, like me, can implement them in my store.

Additional reasons for ongoing membership are found in the numerous business solutions CBA has developed to help stores succeed. These business solutions are designed to solve a store’s basic problems of the day – problems like staff training and turnover, store traffic and awareness, marketing and better understanding the changing consumer, and finally, inventory and cash flow.

These are all major issues every store faces and you are not in this alone because CBA, your trade association, is here with a business solution! It is also important to remember that these solutions have been developed because CBA has listened to you and stepped in to leverage the size and collective voice of our industry. This leverage helps to bring the needed scale for the solution to be available and affordable. By becoming and remaining a member, CBA can continue developing business solutions that help the industry as a whole.

In more detail, here is how CBA addresses the key issues members still face today:

Christian retail issue – Staff Training and Turnover
CBA Business solution – CBA Connect
CBA Connect is a Web-based platform that will revolutionize the way retailers train staff, retrieve product information, and become educated about new products. It offers an industry-wide comprehensive staff training resource, allowing retailer’s access to the widest breadth of training customized based on staff needs. CBA Connect allows the conversation to take place with retailers and suppliers even at the frontline levels, changing the dynamics of our sales process and improving customer service in stores. CBA Connect is now live!

Christian retail issue – Store Traffic and Awareness
CBA Business solution – CBA Channel Exclusives
CBA Channel Exclusives provide retailers with product exclusives coupled with consumer-facing promotions to drive traffic specifically to Christian retail stores. These campaigns raise awareness among consumers and provide a competitive advantage through product that general market competitors can’t get their hands on.

CBA consistently seeks partnerships with industry suppliers to develop channel exclusives to boost traffic and sales in Christian retail stores. Recent exclusives include the Operation Worship Bible campaign as well as Campaign Financial Aid, both in partnership with Tyndale House Publishers. CBA Channel Exclusives provide consumers with a unique reason and motivation to shop Christian retail – driving traffic into our stores. When we work together, everybody wins!

Christian retail issue - Marketing and better understanding the changing consumer
CBA Business solution – CBA Consumer Intelligence
CBA’s Consumer Intelligence reports give a unique look at 300,000 consumers and their specific buying behaviors that impact their behaviors in your store. This can help to better understand how to market to those customers, better understand them as groups or “tribes” and then provide things retailers can do in their stores to help set them apart and discover their uniqueness. This is all accomplished through the reports and data that CBA Consumer Intelligence provides.

Christian retail issue - Inventory and cash flow
CBA Business solution – CBA CROSS:SCAN
CBA CROSS:SCAN is the industry’s premiere data service that collects retailers’ sales data and provides them with weekly insights into nation-wide consumer sales reports. CROSS:SCAN increases stores’ sales while aligning their inventory with the most up-to-date and comprehensive reports available. It ensures that stores are easily and effectively managing their most expensive resource today.

So, there are just four of the many reasons to be a member of CBA. What benefit of membership can you start to take advantage of today?

Finally, I would like to mention some of the things that I was unaware of regarding my trade association until I came to work at CBA…

  • The importance of advocacy for the Christian retailer
  • Why it’s so important for every Christian retailer to be a member
  • Why it’s critical to participate

The importance of advocacy for the Christian retailer:
No one cares more about your success, your viability, your relationships with your customers (and maintaining those) and your overall health than your trade association! There are many in this industry who want to see you prosper but there is no entity more committed to your success and viability than CBA. I know because I work here and I also know the challenges we all collectively face. BUT, I also see the people that are fighting on your behalf every day and battles that we are in. This industry would be far worse off if CBA wasn’t there fighting those battles for you. I do hope you know this!

It’s so important for every Christian retailer to be a member of CBA:
It’s important to be a member for many of the reasons I stated earlier. However, it is important to be a member to belong to something larger than yourself. It is important to have a place that you can give to, not just receive. When I talk about giving, I am talking about your ideas, your successes to help others, your time in being a part of giving back to help others who are now in your shoes. This is all important and needs to be considered by everyone who is a member, has been a member, and those who will become a member.

It’s critical to participate in your CBA membership:
When we become members and are able to speak with a unified voice, we will be heard! One of the most exciting things I think I have experienced so far has been the success of the CBA Channel Exclusives. Do you know that as an industry we have been responsible for equipping our military with more than 340,000 Bibles and counting? That’s beyond exciting! That’s Kingdom work. When we work together and all pull in the same direction, we can achieve incredible goals for the Kingdom. That is why I am in this business today. When we are members of CBA together, our suppliers listen to our collective voice and they respond. CBA also have business solutions that we need all our members to utilize because when they do, it makes these solutions more affordable for another brother or sister. In this critical time in our history, we need everyone to do their part so that we may all benefit.

What does this mean? It means that as a retailer, look to the solutions that CBA provides and see how you can participate. Don’t take this responsibility lightly…

I’ve really appreciated sharing my heart with you and bringing you up to speed on a few things that CBA has been providing on your behalf. Please consider using these solutions and continue in your involvement with your trade association, CBA!

Grace and peace to you,
Curtis Riskey