Your campus buyback also isn't your students' only option anymore. Peer-to-peer sales have become increasingly more common through Amazon, Craigslist or even among one another on campus. To ensure you're getting the traffic you need to have the lower-cost, used options students seek first, you need to make sure your buys are as successful as possible. Here's how stores are doing it nationwide:
1. Get creative with marketing
With so many options for places to sell back textbooks, students don't need to actively seek your buy out like they may have even a few years ago. That means you need to be more proactive in your buyback promotions to make sure students are aware of the benefits of participating in yours.
With a little creamy hot cocoa and some custom-made cups, the Utah Valley University Bookstore was able to capture more sales on campus and spread the word about their buyback easily and relatively inexpensively.
2. Offer incentives
Cash is all the convincing that most students need to sell their titles at the end of the term. However, this means that they will gravitate to wherever they feel they can get the best price, whether or not it's actually true. With the common perception that online vendors or competitors down the street will routinely pay more for books than your store, you need to be ready to offer additional incentives to increase the value of your buyback.
Stores such as University of Dayton Bookstore have seen major increases in buyback participation through games, fun events and the chance at prizes such as textbook scholarships for the following term. University of Minnesota Duluth Stores found that by offering loyalty points for buyback participation, they could not only get more customers during buyback but ensure they would come back the next term to spend more money in the store.
3. Plan in advance, and stick to it
This may sound obvious, but the sooner you start developing your overall event strategy, the better.
Of course, whether this is your first buy or your fiftieth, it doesn't hurt to make a list and check it twice as you go through your buyback planning stage. We've done the first part for you and created this event planning guide to make sure you take care of everything your store needs to do ahead of, during and after the big week.
