Felt-Need Categories To Transmit To Bookstore Manager and IBID/IRT Users

(Nashville, Tenn.) Thomas Nelson, Inc.’s Bible Group has announced that they are partnering with the management groups for the Bookstore Manager and IBID/IRT inventory systems, to provide their users with updated content on Felt Needs categorization for Bible products produced by all publishing houses. They have developed a database of products using data available through PubTracks for titles, BISAC codes, and publishing houses and have assigned each title to a felt need category. The publisher anticipates that retailers who utilize the point-of-sale systems will be receiving their transmission in late-July/early-August.

Retail partners utilizing the Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System who don’t subscribe to either of the inventory systems will be mailed an update for use in their stores. Also, to ensure that the information is kept current for all retailers, Thomas Nelson plans to provide these updates twice a year.

The Bookstore Manager and IBID/IRT system updates are just another step in the publisher’s efforts to assist retail partners in addressing the needs of their customers using need-based merchandising. The overall goal of the publisher-neutral Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System developed by Thomas Nelson is to help simplify the shopping experience by enabling consumers to quickly find a Bible, using simple color-coded need-based signage and a clearly-defined shopping guide categorized by customer need. In addition to an easier purchasing experience for consumers, the new merchandising system also allows for greater flexibility in cross merchandising opportunities for stores and doesn’t require a change in inventory. The system officially launched in early 2007, and continues to positively impact overall Bible sales.

“In the last two quarters of 2007, when we implemented the Felt Needs Bible Merchandising System, our Bible sales increased 17% over the same period in 2006,” noted Ken Summerlin of Crossroads Books & Gifts in Mobile, AL. The Felt-Needs Bible Merchandising system continues to push our improvement in Bible sales, as so far in 2008 our Bible sales are up 12.5%.”

Contact: Brenda Smotherman
Publicist
tel: (615) 902-2231
fax: (615) 902-1132
email: bsmotherman@thomasnelson.com

This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Bibles and Reference, Press Release. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.