AdventistBookCenter.com, owned jointly by the Pacific Press and Review and Herald publishing associations, recently passed the one million dollar sales mark. The website’s sales have grown from zero to over a million dollars in just four and half years. This year’s sales alone could exceed $500,000, says Susan Harvey, vice president for sales and marketing at Pacific Press.
What accounts for the growth? “Well, we’ve been working hard to increase exposure for the website. This includes working with churches and conferences to link their websites to AdventistBookCenter.com, as well as encouraging the Adventist Book Centers (ABC) to promote the website in their local advertising,” says Harvey. “In addition, both Pacific Press and Review and Herald have been heavily promoting the website in all their marketing.”
Due to the tough economy, many ABCs are seeing flat sales and even some a decrease in sales. Yet despite this, AdventistBookCenter.com is continuing to grow as sales steadily increase each month. In turn, the site’s growth benefits the local ABCs as they are the ones that fulfill the orders that come from the website. The website’s growth also means people who wouldn’t otherwise visit an ABC store are buying Adventist books, enabling the presses to reach more people with God’s message.
Order fulfillment has become easier, as the “back end” of the website was recently converted to web-based fulfillment system. That means ABCs can go online to a password-protected site and download their orders, thus eliminating hand labor and speeding up the process. The change to a web-based fulfillment system also means better data, allowing for more successful website promotions and tracking of products. For example, the top Pacific Press seller on the website is the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide followed closely by Signs of the Times subscriptions.
