McVan Blog

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.

The Catholic Church honors medals as a form of religious protection. These medals often represent one of our many beloved saints, one of which is of Saint Christopher. The Saint Christopher Medal is one of the most popular around the world because of his significance in the Catholic faith.

The Saint Christopher medal is believed to protect the wearer on his or her travels. For this reason, many people wear Saint Christopher pendants around their necks, on their wrists, and some even hang the medals in their cars!

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?

As a religious jewelry manufacturer, our success is directly linked to the prosperity of our retail partners. That’s why we recently conducted the 2018 Religious Retail Survey. It's our goal to learn about your challenges, successes, and how we can best support your business growth. While the survey covers an extensive list of questions, today we’ll focus on our retailers' biggest marketing challenge - boosting retail foot traffic. 

“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.

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.

Whether you're an established religious retailer or you're just getting your start in this rewarding industry, you probably understand the importance of using Facebook and other social media channels to point prospective customers toward your shop. But simply maintaining a Facebook page isn't going to reel in the leads you seek. You need to take advantage of another powerful piece of the Facebook puzzle -- namely, its advertising platform.

In retail, promoting seasonal religious gift deals can make a huge difference in your company’s profit over the course of the year. It’s important to think about seasonal promotions that pertain to holidays like Easter and Christmas, but it’s equally important to include revolving hallmarks in peoples’ lives like baptisms, first communions and confirmations.