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?

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.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, but most religious retailers have to make it work with a small team behind them. During our 2018 Religious Retail Survey we found that 82% of retailers have less than five employees.

With a lean crew of five employees, it’s of the utmost importance to develop a team who is friendly and knowledgeable about the products you offer. This type of unique product understanding and personal communication is the experience that shoppers look for in a store of your size. Customers have the option of shopping online or from other larger stores. What’s the secret to creating a memorable experience for visitors? How do you accomplish this?

“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.

Cart abandonment is one of the most frustrating conversion issues for online retailers. According to a Baymard Institute study, at least two-thirds of shoppers abandon their shopping carts prior to purchase.

Unfortunately, this is as much of an issue for online religious retailers as it is for sellers in other industries. Luckily, there are some simple ways to combat abandoned cart and increase completed ecommerce sales.

The state of the religious gift shop industry is ever changing. As with all retailers, it depends on the current market climate, consumer’s discretionary spending, and external competition. The outlook for gift shop retailers is generally bright, though many will have to continue to be diligent and develop a keen understanding of both internal and external factors that will shape the industry today and in the future.

As the season of gift giving ramps up, displaying your strongest sellers is a wise move and can mean higher sales. For people of faith, Easter is a celebration on par with Christmas, and many appreciate tokens of their faith as gifts. A child’s First Communion and Confirmation are other important days that are often celebrated with gifts. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, two days that often stump the gift giver, are perfect opportunities to give religious jewelry.

Any retail establishment will eventually encounter dissatisfied customers, but religious jewelry retailers have several extra considerations since they’re dealing in high-value commodities. As a relgious jewelry retailer, it’s highly likely you sell several different brands, meaning you’re juggling long-term business relationships with different distributors. This is only half the battle when it comes to unhappy customers.

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.