McVan Blog

As a retailer of religious goods, you rely heavily on your suppliers to ensure you get the products you need - and products that will sell. Building a strong relationship with your suppliers and their salesforce is a critical part of your success.

Have you ever asked yourself if your salesperson has your best interests in mind or are they just trying to land a big order?

When you run a religious goods retail business, you need a reliable supplier to work with and ensure you get the products you need. However, with the high cost of being in business, you still want to be as effective as possible to maintain your store’s profitability and grow your business.

While supplying quality products at a fair price is crucial, it isn’t all you should look for in a supplier. Whether you’re preparing to audit your existing supplier relationships or looking to find your next partner, here’s how to measure the performance of an exceptional religious goods supplier.

Most people are familiar with the international bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. What if we could apply this knowledge to religious retail business? That's what we're going to do here!

As any business owner knows, success doesn't happen overnight. Rather, retailers must repeatedly apply core principles to achieve their goals. This has become especially important with the rapid shift of retail in the past decade. Consumer buying habits have evolved, with many people turning to online sources. While the religious gift shop industry is generally growing, the demographics and methods for reaching consumers will continue to change.

Fortunately, the core tenets of running a business are future-proof. Follow these 7 habits of highly successful retailers to improve customer service and grow your business for years to come: 

Many of our retail partners have voiced their concerns about store spending. Logically, reducing spending seems like a simple way to lower business expenses. However, cutting costs in the wrong places can harm your customer experience, which damages your business's reputation. Thankfully, it’s possible to avoid these pitfalls and set your store up for success – smart spending is the key.

“Slow moving inventory” might be every retailer’s least favorite phrase. Most retail stores have been faced with unsold merchandise at one point or another. Many retailers perform their due diligence with market research and sales forecasts, but still end up with unsold inventory. Over the years we've gained a fair amount of knowledge from our religious retail partners. Today, we'll shine the light on how to sell slow moving inventory.

With religious products, many retailers purchase too many products around the holiday season. Your store's excess product can cause a slow down in cash flow, a lack of prime shelf space, and result in the lost opportunity cost of showcasing more popular items. Online retailers have the same issues, which can lead to a storage room filled to the brim with unsold merchandise.

While we here at McVan pride ourselves on being the best supplier of wholesale religious products, such as gifts, jewelry and memorabilia. We do understand that there are other manufacturers out there that do quality work as well. We’re never shy about telling our customers – or potential customers – about these other makers of religious goods when we’re asked, because like we said, we’re all in this business together. And certainly if our customers or potential customers can’t find the product that they’re looking for from us, we want them to be able to find it from someone else – it’s only right.

Nothing dictates the success of your business more than the products you stock your store shelves with. Yes, your products are a reflection of your overall business, so it's only natural for you to want to provide the best to your customers. At McVan, we not only provide the best religious jewelry and memorabilia, which are made from long-lasting and high-quality materials, but we'll also stand behind these products 100 percent with our Lifetime Warranty and Return Policy so you can have peace of mind that your customers will always be taken care of in the event that something happens to one of their pieces.