By Carol Pipes
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Lifeway Christian Resources has been recognized on Newsweek’s list of Best Online Shops 2022. Lifeway landed at No. 5 in the category of media (e.g., books, CD, DVD, software).
Lifeway CEO Ben Mandrell said the entire organization is excited to be recognized as a top e-commerce site.
“This recognition reflects the hard work by our IT and Marketing teams to improve the user experience at Lifeway.com and to refresh our brand. Both of these have been priorities for Lifeway as we focus on the needs of our customers,” Mandrell said. “We know it’s important for church leaders to find just the right resource at the right time in their ministry.
“We’ve taken our customers’ feedback and have been making much-needed improvements to our website,” he continued. “We want to do everything we can to make it easy for church leaders to find the ministry resources they need to be more effective in the work they do.”
Lifeway’s Chief Information Technology Officer Jamie Adams said providing a frictionless and personalized experience is part of a broader strategy to simplify and improve the customer’s online journey. She said over the past year, Lifeway has made significant site improvements to help customers find the products and services of interest to them and to speed up the checkout process. Adams also said Lifeway added a new auto-ship feature for additional convenience.
“All of these have contributed to a better customer experience, but it’s just the beginning,” Adams said. “Customers will continue to see website improvements and new features in the coming months.”
Lifeway Creative Director Christi Kearney said when the team began work on the site redesign, they started at square one and reframed how they thought about visitors to the site.
“People are much more than users,” Kearney said. “We wanted to elevate the visitor to more than that—the people who come to our site are heroes. We know ministry leaders are busy, they have a lot on their plate, and they want to reach their desired goals quickly. Every enhancement we made was in the service and context of our heroes: we simplified journeys, elevated intent, clarified and strengthened messaging, aesthetics, design, and experiences to feel intuitive, modern and mission-focused.”
Lifeway’s newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer Kim Massey, who joined after the transformation of Lifeway.com took place, shared the pride she has in the overall team and the vision forward.
“The strides taken by the team earlier this year to create a truly customer-centric site are best in class,” Massey said. “With the strong cross-functional team we have in place along with the ongoing research being done to ensure we are consistently learning how to best amplify the experience of our heroes; I look forward to the transformative experiences we will create in the future.”
Newsweek partnered with market research company Statista to identify top online shops. Statista performed detailed testing of each online shop and conducted a nationwide survey of approximately 6,000 American online shoppers.
Survey participants were asked to evaluate online shops on trust and security, structure and usability, payment, purchase and delivery, service and communication, technical performance, and likelihood of purchase. Out of the thousands of online retailers Statista evaluated, only 1,000 have been awarded among eight industries and 39 different categories.
To see the full list of Best Online Shops 2022, visit Newsweek.com/best-online-shops-2022.
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Carol Pipes is director of Corporate Communications at Lifeway Christian Resources.
About Lifeway
In operation since 1891, Lifeway Christian Resources is one of the leading providers of Christian resources, including Bibles, books, Bible studies, Christian music and movies, VBS, and church supplies, as well as camps and events for all ages. Lifeway is the world’s largest provider of Spanish Bibles. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., Lifeway receives no denominational funding and operates as a self-supporting nonprofit. For more information, visit lifeway.com.
