In a crowded market, what are the top competitive advantages college stores have? Online and locally new competitors are popping up for college stores. Everyone is vying for students’ attention and likely offering similar deals. However, independent college stores have some innate competitive advantages that can help you keep and expand your market share. Let’s take a look at some of the ways the MBS system helps you leverage your store’s advantages.
Topics: happy holidays
MBS will be closed on November 24 and 25 in observance of Thanksgiving.
Oregon State University Beaver Store decided to become an MBS Premier Partner this year for several reasons: providing students with options, cost-saving benefits, MBS’ commitment to college bookstores, the service and products MBS provides college stores, and more. We recently spoke with the Beaver Store’s Chief Academic Materials Officer James Howard (an almost 30-year veteran of the college store industry) about why the store decided to partner with MBS and how the industry is changing.
Centralia College Bookstore has worked with MBS for a number of years through its ICBA membership, but recently they have taken the step to enter into an MBS Premier Partnership. Seeing the value in the array of benefits, the store decided to lock-in MBS partner perks for the future.
The Weber State University Wildcat Store serves a diverse student body. Providing students with a variety of course material formats ensure the store can supply the materials that best fit student budgets and learning styles. Recently, we spoke with Wildcat Store Academic Supply Manager Sarah Tooker about how an MBS Premier Partnership benefits her store and helps them achieve their goals.
The Skidmore Shop at Skidmore College recently joined MBS in a Premier Partnership. With an assortment of invaluable benefits and MBS’ strong inventory supply, it was an easy decision for the store. We recently sat down with Martha O’Leary, Director of Brand Communications and Marketing; Dawn Greenlaw, Associate Director for Bookstore; and Becky Mattison, Sr. Academic Materials Associate, with the Skidmore Shop to discuss why they chose to partner with MBS and how the partnership has benefited their store.
The gift-giving season is right around the corner. Give customers some fun gift basket options by creating online kits with some of the merchandise you already have in your store.
How can your store use Textbook KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to enhance your evaluation of its performance through rush as well as its management of faculty adoptions? MBS’ KPI tools provide easy analysis of key data, including Textbook KPIs. Let’s take a look at the reports that help supply transparency into key data figures as they relate to textbook management.
Join MBS Store Technology Solutions for its biannual Virtual Forum (October 31 -- November 4). The week of events will include hands-on learning, new feature announcements, informative how-to sessions and best practices. Registration for each session is now open.
Social media is a very simple, cost-effective way to engage students with the bookstore. In a perfect world, you would post on your store’s social media account and all of your followers would see and remember the content you post. Better yet, they would heart the post and leave a comment, and maybe even share the information with their friends who don’t follow you. However, as we all know, that is not the reality. So, how can stores get customers to follow and interact with them on social media?
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