Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

College stores are a misunderstood part of campus. Tasked with supporting students and generating revenue, stores are caught in the middle of two conflicting goals. For those who don’t live and breathe the industry every single day, it’s easy to lose sight of how the store enhances day-to-day campus life and all it does to help students, faculty and the school. That’s why it’s important to share more of what you do to enhance affordability and student life with the campus community.

The image many of us create in our minds when we think of a college freshman is an 18-year-old student fresh out of high school who is financially dependent on her parents and unmarried with no children. This student attends school full-time, lives on campus and joins organizations to get more involved. However, that isn’t reality for most of today’s students. On many campuses today, the nontraditional student is the new normal.

“Print is dead.”

“Digital will never last.”

Everyone has an opinion about the print vs. digital debate. Facts and figures can be quoted for both sides, making a compelling argument for each. The cost of print can be too much for students to shoulder. Retention is harder to achieve with digital. Back and forth, the argument can go on forever because the truth is neither platform is inherently bad or good. Both have unique pros and cons that make the decision about which one to choose nearly impossible.

As spring rolls in, course material adoptions come back to the forefront of concerns. Finding ways to communicate the importance of early adoptions to faculty can be a challenge. Are you doing enough? Are you doing too much? Students, faculty and college stores benefit from working together. Finding that happy medium where the faculty is informed enough to understand the importance to the student and the store, but does not feel harassed about the subject requires finesse. Here are four best practices when building professional relationships that will create a lasting rapport.

Students continuously cycle through campus, but is one group of students really that different than the next? According to generational research, yes. Each generation has different expectations, goals, preferences and views of the world. Gen Z is no exception. Even down to social media habits, this group distinguishes themselves from their millennial predecessors. Understanding Gen Z’s relationship with social media and retail will help you improve the way your store uses social media to connect with the students on your campus.   

Major social media platforms, from Facebook to Snapchat, are looking at ways to attract business advertisers. While Facebook has been offering advertising solutions for years, Snapchat is new to the game. Both companies, however, have recently made announcements about new opportunities for businesses on their platform. Here’s what you need to know.

The demand for an education that is affordable, accessible and personalized is driving innovation and creating new opportunities for students to save money on the course materials vital to their collegiate success. Publisher rentals are the latest industry solution that emerged from student-driven conversations about the effect of course materials on their educational experience.

After combing through the dark, dusty, digital corners of the internet, I have compiled a list of do’s and don’ts for turning your Snapchat account into a must follow for students, alumni, and faculty and staff.

A customer walks into your store, eyes glued to their phone. Barely acknowledging the employee’s greeting, they wander through the store briefly before leaving without making a purchase. This is common in retail. Consumers are distracted, and it is hard to get their attention. That’s where smart beacons can change the store’s interaction with the customer, making the experience better for both.

You are five minutes late to meet a friend, but you also have to pick up a couple things before the store closes. You rush inside the store, hoping to get in and out quickly. Immediately you are greeted by rows of overstuffed shelves with more merchandise that you can take in at a glance. You scan the store looking for someone to help you or a sign pointing you in the way you need to go. You only see flashy, red sale signage and uninterested faces. Already late, you squeeze your way through the aisles searching for the few things that you needed to pick up. Your phone rings. It’s your friend asking where you are. You shove the items you managed to find onto the shelves and leave because you don’t have time to deal with it right now.