Online Innovation Among Adventist Bookstores in Australia Helps Drive 5X Growth in Online Sales
26 October 2020 | Shortly before coronavirus restrictions stopped in-store shopping in March, Adventist bookstores in Australia launched AdventistBookCentre.com.au, an online store uniting every physical store.
The February launch of the online effort concluded a drawn-out process of getting the stores that are independently run in separate conferences, to work together.
Since the launch, online sales for the stores have grown exponentially. They are five times higher than this time last year.
AdventistBookCentre.com.au is being developed to become a “one-stop-shop for Adventist resources in Australia for people interested in personal study, health and evangelism resources,” said a news report from Adventist Record, the official news source for the South Pacific Division of the Adventist denomination.
The next step will be to improve the site’s look and features.
“What we have now is okay, but we have plans to do even better as we move with the times together,” said Web-store coordinator Scott Wegener. “We plan to team up for some national marketing to reach out to the Australian community via various media formats.”
Timely order fulfilment is a challenge because of high demand and COVID-19 related restrictions
“We’ve been so grateful for the efforts of Signs Publishing and the AUC (Australian Union Conference) Resource Centre for keeping their supplies coming, especially through their lengthy hardships in Victoria,” said Susan Duncan, store supervisor for Western Australia. “We’ve seen such great demand for particularly end-times related products even our suppliers have been running out of stock.”
Delays have also been caused by reduced air delivery.
Australia Post has said Christmas deliveries must be mailed by early December in order to be delivered by Christmas.