Geppi Family Enterprises Chief Sales and Service Officer Chris Powell updated retailers on some new initiatives at the Diamond Retailer Lunch on Friday of Comic-Con in San Diego.

"We're expanding our services to the publishers in both the comic and game markets, which means we've been doing warehousing and fulfillment," Powell said. "A big part of that was also setting up some systems that we hope to use to support retailers in the future, providing access to a broad selection of products."

Diamond was promoting its newly announced FandomWorld at its booth (see "Geppi Family Enterprises Announces Direct-to-Consumer Program"), and Powell gave a quick overview of the program. "FandomWorld is a marketing program at its heart," he said. "We want to make sure that if there's something that you don't choose to stock or are unable to stock but want to offer to your customers, you can still benefit from that." Retailers who refer customers from affiliate links on their websites get 10% of each sale. The  program started with Previews World products but will roll out eventually to all the Geppi companies.

Powell revealed that Diamond is currently testing a drop shipping system with a major retailer that would allow customers to submit orders directly from the retailer's website to be fulfilled by Diamond. The system would require the retailer to have a robust website, but Powell said Diamond is working with Shopify, ComicSuite, and others to integrate the system with their retailer tools.

The Diamond purchasing team has been looking for products that have potential to sell more than retailers might think. "I was very pleasantly surprised at the very early success of diecast for our retailers," Powell said. "They've done very well with those." Nanoblocks were another sleeper hit. The Previews team is taking a different approach to marketing the new products, some of which will be exclusives. "Instead of being focused on a single manufacturer, we're grouping things more often into these categories, where anybody who's interested in model kits can see a lot of different things at one time," Powell said.

He then turned to the Diamond retailer awards. The Dave Hawksworth Memorial Comic Shop Improvement Award went to Fourcorners Comics & Games in Gettysburg, PA. The award, a $5,000 grant to a comic shop owner to make improvements to their business, was instituted in memory of the late Diamond Outside Sales Manager Dave Hawksworth in 2018 (see "Diamond Announces Annual Award").

The other awards were:

Best Collecting Supplies Display
Famous Faces and Funnies, West Melbourne, FL

Best Complementary Merchandise Display
Goblin Market, Chicago, IL

Best Display Focused on Community Representation
Neighborhood Comics, Savannah, GA

Best Multi-Function Space
Jesse James Comics, Glendale, AZ

Best Use of the Cash-Wrap Area
Fourcorners Comics & Games, Gettysburg, PA