Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

Learning is a student’s foremost job on campus, and education doesn’t stop the moment a student steps foot in your store. There is certainly no need to question a student’s choice of logo-wear, snack food, technology or other general merchandise. But you can help students avoid the poor decision to forgo a course material purchase.

Welcome to the first of a four-part series about working with digital texts in the classroom. Our goal is to offer our collegiate retail readers insight that will empower your discussions with faculty and administrators about affordable course material options.  We will present the pros and cons of digital texts in a way that allows you to answer questions about how the format affects student engagement and success — and faculty workload.

In a perfect world, college students would be eager to discover what’s inside their required textbooks. They would know that the money they spent on course materials in your store was an investment in themselves — and in their future — with an invaluable pay-off. But this is not the case. Students often express hatred for course materials or any form of required reading. If they didn’t, the popular Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology series would have no audience, and collegiate retailers wouldn’t have to worry as much about textbook sales.

If this year’s holiday shopping season is anything like last year’s, many Americans will wait until the eleventh hour to buy gifts — students included. About half of us were done with our shopping last season by December 20, according to a survey by the National Retail Foundation. The report estimated that 126 million consumers, 53 percent, would wait until Super Saturday, the weekend before Christmas, to finish up their shopping.

Studies show that Generation Z — who comprise the bulk of young people entering college now —  have well-informed appetites. These kids were raised on public service messages intended to counter the rise in obesity and diabetes. When Gen Z students are hungry for a snack, they look for nutritious options first. That’s good reason to drive traffic into your store with an easy marketing campaign about the health food you offer, especially as finals approach.

If you’ve worked on a campus before, you probably don’t need anyone to tell you when finals are approaching. You know because the term is coming to an end, of course, but you also know because the atmosphere changes. The collective tension-level rises. Students behave strangely: They’re easily triggered, easily confused and sometimes downright rude. It can be a rough time for collegiate retailers and their associates. But it can also be an opportunity to burnish your store’s reputation as a refuge from the academic grind.

College stores need to establish bonds with customers. Show them you’re interested in helping students save money and succeed. Find creative ways to generate foot traffic.

MBS Corporate Marketing Representative, Lilli Brooks, has exceptional knowledge of the collegiate retail industry. She travels the country, working with store managers and directors to help them improve efficiencies, sales and revenues. Because Lilli has observed the trend in marketplace sourcing close-up in a variety of contexts, she has in-depth understanding of its allure, its inconveniences and its dangers. We sat down to talk to her about how MBS’s new solution SimpleSource will allow even the most time-strapped textbook managers to get into the sourcing game, while eliminating the dangers.

Although current surveys show faculty have no preference about whether students buy digital or print books, that could change in light of new research from a pair of reading experts at the University of Maryland.

Good faculty relations are critical to collegiate retail success. Of course, you need cooperation from educators when it comes to adoptions, but, far beyond that, faculty evangelists can boost your store’s campus profile and its bottom line. In marketing-speak, an evangelist is someone who spreads enthusiastic word-of-mouth about your store and services — and they do it for free.