Retail store design plays a critical role in how students and the community view your campus store. When the BYU Store Director Mark Clegg joined the store team, he knew he needed to lead the way in modernizing the store. His goal was to provide the campus community a school-branded immersive retail experience that would bring customers to the store time and again.
It is harder than ever to get and keep students’ attention. A fresh inventory selection with pop-up stores and consignment merchandise helps, but savvy stores like the UCLA Store also incorporates marketing and additional services that bring a steady stream of campus and community foot traffic.
Recently, the University of Wisconsin University Book Store in Madison capitalized on a great opportunity and expanded its technology business. When it was announced that the University was closing its tech store, bookstore management stepped up and prevented students from losing an important on-campus service.
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Revenue generating ideas help college stores supplement top-line revenue while expanding their customer base. Stores like the MECC (Mountain Empire Community College) Bookstore in Virginia have proactively worked to take on additional services and create new ways to bring customers into the store. We sat down with MECC Bookstore Manager Dora Hill to discuss the challenges her store faces and how she is working to overcome them.
In the ever-changing landscape of collegiate retail, campus stores need revenue generating ideas that help fill in the financial gaps left by strained budgets and decreased textbooks sales. From pop-up shops to expanding bookstore services, campus stores develop ideas that push the boundaries of their traditional retail models to better serve their customers while generating additional top-line revenue. Recently, the Umpqua Community College Bookstore was given the opportunity to expand its service beyond campus and develop stronger community ties.
Now more than ever, it is important for campus stores to simplify and streamline buyback events. The College of the Holy Cross Bookstore has made its buyback a success by ensuring that its student body always has a consistent experience. Students can count on always getting the same great buyback service each term from the same familiar faces staffing the event. The store’s consistency ensures that students always know what to expect and where to get the best return on their textbooks.
The University of Arizona BookStores has cracked the code for converting social media engagement into store sales. Social media has tremendous potential to raise campus awareness and interest in store events and services. How can that potential be translated into a revenue generating idea for college stores?
When was the last time your campus store reviewed its budgetary model? Does it match the model your campus uses? These may not be the most exciting questions to ask, but the budgetary model a college chooses can give the campus store valuable insight into administrative expectations and help ensure the store serves the school’s mission. Download the “Successful Budgeting for the Campus Store” white paper to get a breakdown of college budgetary models and a comprehensive guide on actionable ways to increase top-line revenue, minimize operating costs and keep the cost-to-students low.
Campus stores look beyond the traditional retail model to find ways to continuously drive customer traffic. As education, course materials and collegiate retail evolve, many stores seek new opportunities to bring in additional top line revenue and strengthen campus relationships. The UCLA Store maximizes its eCommerce and social media efforts, hosts a variety of events throughout the year, and creates new opportunities to better serve the campus community.
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