Parable Develops "Ministry Friendly" eCommerce Engine

Retail Giant Makes Private Label eStore Program Available to Non-Profits

Dallas, Texas–National Religious Broadcasters Convention 2001—Christian non-profits can now take advantage of an eCommerce solution developed by The Parable Group for its association of independent retail stores in North America. Parable designed this new technology, known as "private labeling" to answer concerns many ministries and Christian non-profits have about "affinity" programs.

With a Parable Private Label eStore, visitors to a ministry Internet site never leave the ministry’s web pages to complete a product purchase or make a donation. Ministry hosts also have complete control over the products available to the shopper and are never in danger of introducing their guests to items that might be offensive or inappropriate.

The Parable Private Label eStore program also provides ministries an easy means of collecting donations on-line. Each time a shopper visits the shopping pages, they are given the opportunity to make a contribution. The software is set-up to deposit the entire donation amount into the ministry's account. Donors can contribute without making a purchase as well.

Parable shares a higher than average percentage of each sale with the ministry. Revenue shares range from 20 to 40 percent, depending on the ministry's annual sales volume.

In addition to product sales and donation collection, the Parable Private Label eStore program provides ministries with detailed information on the people who visit their web sites, including names, addresses and on-line purchase activity. A back-end tool on an administrative site allows ministry managers to even watch activity in "real time" which could be useful in determining the immediate response to an on-air appeal or product offer.

Products are fulfilled from six warehouses around the United States and Parable’s product list exceeds 100,000 items. According to Ron Johnston, president of Parable Interactive, the company formed by The Parable Group to operate its Internet business, "just about anything sold in a Christian bookstore is available on-line. But we make sure the product is tailored to the theological views of the ministry." There's also provision made for ministry proprietary product such as tape series, self-published books and exclusive offers.

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Parable Interactive Ministry eCommerce Solution, page two

Response from the non-profit community has been encouraging, according to Johnston. "We offer all the amenities of a world-class shopping experience without the liability associated with other affiliate programs," says Johnston. "Our non-profit partners have been able to free up resources they were using on Internet programs and redirect them to other vital areas of their ministry. We allow them to run the ministry and let Parable worry about the store."

Parable has managed to establish an impressive roster of ministry partners using the Private Label eStore program. Among the early start-ups are CBN TV, PAX Internet, and ZJam Radio.

The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) was among the first ministries to add a Parable Private Label eStore to their existing Internet site. According to Ben Thole, CBN’s Director of Business Development, Parable exceeded his requirements for ShopCBN. “We wanted a broad product selection, marketing support, site design and maintenance. Parable allowed us to provide the kind of quality CBN’s audience has come to expect.”

The eStore team at Parable Interactive is organized for quick response to the changing needs of their ministry partners. “The folks at Parable were easy to work with and quick to please,” says Karsten Amlie, president of PAX Internet. PAX turned to Parable Interactive to provide an eStore featuring secular and inspiration products. “We were surprised by the depth of products we were able to offer through the Parable eCommerce service,” said Amlie.

Initial set up fees in most cases are less than $2,000 and monthly service charges are around $100. Depending on the ministries current design average time from agreement to actual launch of the eStore can be a little as two weeks.

Parable Interactive is one of a family of companies under the Parable umbrella. Parable is a California-based marketing and retail services company representing over $400,000,000 in annual sales of Christian products to consumers.

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February 12, 2001