Retailers See Data Collection and Management as Key for Long-Term Success of Channel
9/16/2005
In an unprecedented demonstration of channel-wide retail unity and collaboration, hundreds of stores in the Christian Retail Channel will begin electronically reporting weekly product sales data to CBA’s new CROSS:SCAN (Christian Retail Official Sales Statistics) data service beginning on October 1, 2005, creating the first fully retailer-driven data collection and management initiative for the whole channel. The data CROSS:SCAN generates will equip Christian retailers to work more effectively with Christian product suppliers to improve supply-chain efficiencies and develop channel-management strategies. CBA has initially received commitments via signed contracts from the Association of Logos Bookstores, Berean Christian Stores, Covenant Marketing Group, Lemstone Christian Stores, LifeWay Christian Stores, and Mardel Christian & Education Supply, and has contracts in process with others, including Family Christian Stores, and the Munce Group.
“CROSS:SCAN will provide retail intelligence for intelligent retailers that understand the value of combining their data with Christian stores nationwide to better understand and manage inventories, sell more, and be the best trading partners for suppliers,” said Bill Anderson, president of CBA, the trade association for the Christian Retail Channel. “In our close work with retail leadership across the channel, including chains, franchises, marketing groups, and independents, our members have consistently expressed a need for broader collection, better interpretation, and more controlled usage of sales data from across the channel.”
“Many of our members have told us that CBA is the retail organization best suited to securely collect this data channel-wide and provide back to them the foundational reports they need, in a time and format that fits the unique needs of retail. So we have developed the infrastructure of personnel and technology to offer a secure environment via the Internet for delivery of data and have negotiated agreements with retail organizations so that we can begin data collection for the important fourth quarter.”
According to Anderson, this unprecedented collaboration reveals the increasing sophistication of the channel. “Retailers have recognized that they need to work together as they compete against other channels, and they want to better manage their collective assets. The sales data they generate is one of those assets,” said Anderson. “Our stores intend to increase their sales. This effort demonstrates to suppliers that Christian retailers are committed to becoming a better-informed and more efficient channel with a heightened ownership of their future success. Our retailers believe the intelligence CROSS:SCAN provides will fit a retailer’s data needs and will better equip them to work with their suppliers in developing channel-management strategies that are win-win.”
Sales data for books, Bibles, music, videos, and kids products will be collected by SKU every Monday from participating stores for the previous Sunday-Saturday. Participating stores will have secure access to the CROSS:SCAN reports on Wednesdays via the Internet, reflecting the previous week’s sales across the country in Christian retail. Retailers will not have access to store-specific or group-specific information, but only a fully aggregate picture that will show what products are moving, which will better equip them for inventory decision-making. CROSS:SCAN will identify fast-moving products, and products that have made significant jumps or declines in sales in the previous week. CBA will continue working with retail leaders to identify other Christian-retail needs and report enhancements that CROSS:SCAN might provide. While initially the report will offer an aggregate picture by SKU that can be sorted in several ways, CBA may, with the expressed support of retail members and leaders, expand the breadth and sorts of data in the future. CBA is currently developing a contract to allow suppliers to have exclusive access to the aggregated sales data of their own products.
“I urge every Christian retailer to join us in developing and using CROSS:SCAN for the channel-wide data they need at their fingertips—and for members, it’s free,” noted Anderson. “This is not intended to replace any other data service in the industry—CROSS:SCAN is not an ‘either-or’ proposition. CBA will continue to encourage our member retailers to share data with industry partners. Each opportunity to share data is a case-by-case decision that is uniquely theirs to make after careful consideration.”
To sign up to submit data and receive reports from CBA’s new CROSS:SCAN data service, Christian stores will be able to download a copy of the contract from CBA’s Web site, sign it, and send it in. The $500 annual fee will be waived for CBA member stores. Independent stores that are members of groups such as Covenant, Logos, Munce, and Parable will need to sign a contract with CBA to have access to the CROSS:SCAN reports. CBA expects to have a sizable majority of Christian-retail stores reporting by the end of 2005, making CBA CROSS:SCAN the largest and best Christian-retail sales data available.
“As the leadership organization for Christian retailers, we have reengineered ourselves to provide highly valued business solutions,” explained Anderson. “So as we listened to the concerns of our members in regard to data collection and their expressed desire that CBA provide this solution to a critical need, we carefully investigated if this is something we could do. Once we determined that we could do it, our members affirmed that we should do it, and so we will do it.”
Call (800) 252-1950 today and ask for Member Services to find out more about CROSS:SCAN and how you can participate.