A wide selection of course material formats helps students find the best option to fit their budget and learning style. Submit your wantlist to MBS as soon as possible to maximize the number of low-cost books your store will receive next term.
Why should your store start its bin-and-hold order now?
After you begin your bin-and-hold order, your wantlist will be worked against MBS inventory during the length of time your bin is open, providing your store with access to a greater amount of low-cost MBS inventory. New books come into our warehouse facility multiple times each day. Leaving your bin with MBS for a set time frame helps us maximize your wantlist fulfillment.
With a bin-and-hold order:
- Your wantlist is left with us for a set period of time. The longer the wantlist is with MBS, the more opportunities we have to add books to your bin.
- You can update your wantlist with new titles or quantities as adoptions come in.
- You can choose to receive your consolidated order in one shipment, or you can choose to have several orders arrive on designated dates.
“The bin-and-hold wantlist gives us the opportunity to get as many used copies of textbooks from MBS for our students as possible. I find, the sooner you start a wantlist, the better the opportunities to get used books. I would definitely recommend using the bin-and-hold option. It’s very quick and easy to use and saves time on getting used/new books,” said Kim Ergott, Textbook Operations Specialist | College Store, Pennsylvania College of Technology.
Need help with defining some of the terminology used around textbook ordering? Check out our glossary of textbook ordering terminology.
Don’t forget to open your wantlist to MBS’ new book inventory
MBS provides college stores with great discounts on new book inventory. Simply open your wantlist to new textbooks. Also, MBS accepts 100% returns on new book inventory.
“The textbook functionality within Arc allows our course material team to rapidly adopt titles across multiple sections for any given course and adjust the new book purchases they're going to make based on expected used book wantlist totals. Those totals feed back into inventory records and takes into account our projections for used books acquired through our in-store buybacks. All of this allows the course materials team to work in a really efficient manner. That's a big benefit,” Craig Bauer, Course Materials Manager, University of Manitoba BookStore, said.
Read more about how the UM BookStore achieves inventory accuracy.
Request wantlist reworks for your bin and hold
When you leave your wantlist with MBS, you can request that it is reworked multiple times a day. Because MBS inventory is constantly updated, reworks give you great access to inventory as it is checked in and shelved. If your store doesn’t use SimpleSource, call order processing to request a rework schedule (800-325-0577).
“Having a vendor with a large inventory is extremely important. We pride ourselves on providing students with options. We're a non-profit bookstore, a 501(c)(3), and one of the ways we try to lower their cost is by providing options. One of the important options are used books. Having a resource that can fulfill a lot of our demand for those print materials is very important,” Beaver Store’s Chief Academic Materials Officer James Howard said.
Learn more about how the OSU Beaver Store manages course materials.
If your store isn’t using SimpleSource, now is a great time to start
If your store uses SimpleSource, your wantlists are managed through one tool and are automatically reworked against our inventory several times a day.
With SimpleSource, your store can:
- Save time
- Access more inventory at multi-discounted levels
- Streamline your wantlist process
- Get one shipment with one invoice
- View real-time wantlist fulfillment updates
- Control your price thresholds
Ordering textbooks from MBS is easy. Our straightforward ordering solutions help your store lower costs and save time. If you have any questions, speak to your MBS representative today.
