A recent milestone reached by AdventistBookCenter.com, the online sales Web site of Pacific Press and Review and Herald publishing houses, underscores the ministry impact of this venture.

In four and one-half years, AdventistBookCenter.com has racked up US$1 million in sales; in 2003, Web-based sales are expected to top $500,000, says Susan Harvey, vice president for marketing at Pacific Press, based in Nampa, Idaho. The bulk of online sales are in the United States, but overseas orders from as far away as Japan have been noted.

Religious books and other items have long been prized by Seventh-day Adventists, who participate in one of the largest weekly Bible study programs in the world, Sabbath School, which has more than 20 million in attendance globally. Sabbath School items and Adventist books are big online sellers, particularly for those who don’t live near a retail store, known as an Adventist Book Center, or ABC.

“It would appear that the majority of the orders are coming from people who don’t live near an ABC,” Harvey says. “The ABC that services Alaska is in Boise; without this site, there would be no ABC presence in Alaska, and we get a lot of orders from there.”

She continues, “In fact, we received a letter not long ago where the writer said, ‘I live 40 miles from the North Pole and thanks to AdventistBookCenter.com, I feel as close to the store as if I lived next door.’”

Another online customer wrote in saying that while on a telephone counseling session with a pastor, she was able to find—and order—a recommended book online during the call. The customer, Harvey says, wrote that this was a “good indication of the fact that we are a ministry as well as a business.”

Unlike some book Web sites that centralize order processing in distinct warehouses, AdventistBookCenter.com utilizes local ABC stores as “depots” from which orders are shipped. This provides revenue for the stores, links to customers within their region, and ministry opportunities as well. Harvey says, “We’re getting orders from all over the world.” The order that took sales over the $1 million level came from Japan, where there is no ABC.

The Web site is now a joint venture between the two Adventist publishing houses. Costs are minimal, with individual ABC stores contributing “sweat equity” in processing the orders for delivery. Harvey says a summer 2003 campaign to get churches and Adventist institutions to link to AdventistBookCenter.com generated 300 new “entry points” to the sales site; however, unlike book sales giant Amazon.com, there are no plans to offer commissions or “affiliate fees” to referring Web sites. Rather, the publishing houses, which are part of the world headquarters operation of the church, appeal to local churches and others to use links to the AdventistBookCenter.com site as a way to expand their ministry.

Next year, Harvey says, plans are in process to add a Spanish-language version of the site, offering literature in that language. Pacific Press is the church’s publisher and distributor of Spanish-language materials in North America, she adds.