Now we’re seeing a new development that poses a new shift for retailers.  In 2009, Amazon’s ‘Kindle’ gained popularity as a ‘digital book’.  A hardware device that would enable you to carry around with you hundreds of books in your bag and could download more from their online store.  Sounds reserved to only the rare tech-savvy?  Consider this: Over Christmas 2009 Amazon.com, the largest bookseller in the world (http://www.thebookseller.com/news/58808-amazon-could-phase-out-publishers.html), sold more ‘book downloads’ than it did physical books (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/dec/28/kindle-christmas).  Music downloads haven’t even come close to that kind of percentage.  Amazon’s not alone either.  Barnes & Noble, the claiming to be the largest bricks & mortar bookseller, spent over $15 million USD to acquire an “e-reader” solution.  Rumour websites are abuzz that Apple (yes, the iPod) are set to launch their own version later this month.  It seems digital books are coming, and coming fast.

So what does this mean for independent Christian stores in Australia?  Whatever we want it to mean.  Depending on our outlook, it could be one of fear or one of opportunity – people are still purchasing the hardware and paying for the download of the book.  Plus, there will always be us die-hard book-readers that refuse to read a book that requires recharging.  If we choose to take a lesson from the music industry, we should be keeping our ear to the ground on this topic and ensuring that we’re ready and willing to embrace this new change.  Last decade, many music stores chose to ignore the change to their industry and were left behind.  The industry didn’t go away, in fact in many ways it’s grown – but they didn’t grow with it.  Let’s decide that in this new decade we won’t allow the fear of the unknown or technology grip us.  Ultimately, this new medium has the potential to get God’s word into people’s hands like never before.

Share your thoughts on this topic – do you think this could happen in the near future?  How could this change our industry, both stores & suppliers?

I am sitting in my lounge room typing this post on a laptop. When I save the post, the data somehow travels through the air, completely invisible to me, and goes to a little box in my study. That box then sends the data through a cable to an exchange somewhere in Orange. The data then travels away and sits in a box in Sydney. And then someone in Melbourne, or even New York, can read this paragraph on a phone while sitting on a bus. And this all happens in seconds.

It sure beats pulling a rabbit out of a top hat! And yet, for Generation Y the digital world is normal.
It is not magical, it is the world as they have always known it.

Do you remember getting the card stamped in the back of a book when you borrowed it from the library?
Today’s primary school students have never seen such a thing. Their books simply get scanned in and out of the library.

Life has changed. Information is only ever seconds away from our fingertips – both for us and our customers. It is my dream that this website will grow into a bountiful resource for Australian Christian Retailers as together we discover exciting new ways to combine global technology with our local communities.

(P.S. Just as life does not consist of the abundance of possession, similarly it does not consist of the abundance of data! In all things, may we be rich towards God!).