Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

In an effort to drive more traffic into their store and away from online retailers during rush, the staff at UC Davis Stores was struggling to come up with ideas that would meet those goals. Last year, they tried giving away t-shirts to entice students to come visit the store, which worked in the sense that that event was popular, but ultimately came up short of expectations when the store underestimated its audience and ran out of shirts in about 10 minutes. Back to the drawing board.

Incentivizing students to participate in your buyback can often be a tricky thing. Maybe they think they can get a better deal elsewhere. Maybe they’re planning on giving their books to a friend. Maybe they assume their books are worth so little that it’s not even worth stopping by the buyback counter. Finding ways to appeal to them can be hard with all these forces outside of a store’s control, especially since most stores are dependent on a robust buyback in order to make sure their shelves are stocked with the right titles the following term.

When the Flyer Spirit Store at the University of Dayton decided it was time to open up a new space, they didn’t have to look far.

Have you ever thought about what you'd include in your store if you could buy and install whatever you'd like? Maybe you'd start with a security upgrade, or perhaps you'd want a brand new POS - it's up to you! If you haven't, check out this list and see if there's anything you might want to add to that wish list of yours. Check out our list. 

Creating fun ways for students to interact with your store early on in their college experience is crucial to your long-term success. If you can establish a positive relationship from the jump, then you very well may have earned a loyal customer for the next four years, if not even further.

In the college bookstore, loyalty doesn’t have to be an intangible concept that you can’t quite quantify. For a store like yours, there are few, if any, things more valuable than repeat customers who show a consistent desire to come back to you first, ahead of your competitors. Whatever their reason is – be it your wider selection, friendly service staff, etc. – your store is in a position to reward your customers for their continued loyalty, and you can dole out those rewards in a number of ways.

A few years ago, Ashland University Bookstore Director Terri Hudson wanted to put something together that would involve the people in her local community beyond the school’s north-central Ohio campus. What she came up with was something called the American Girl Club, which would typically host teas for mothers and daughters around Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

Your store needs to be innovative, diligent in reaching out to customers and as keen at studying the market as your competitors if you want to thrive.

Showrooming isn’t going anywhere. It’s become a staple of the in-person shopping experience, and retail stores across the country are working hard to prevent their customers from walking in their doors, checking out their products, and leaving before purchasing that same product online.

The symbiotic relationship between a store and its school’s faculty is extremely important. You are reliant on one another to get things done, and in order to have all of your course materials ready for your students at the beginning of each term, you have to work together. But how faculty views the store may differ from how the store views itself, and those discrepancies could keep you from maintaining as efficient a relationship as you might like.