Whether you are a pro at ordering from MBS or new to the textbook ordering process, MBS is here to help. We provide college stores with a one-stop shop for all of your textbook ordering needs and outstanding customer service support. If you haven’t already submitted a bin-and-hold wantlist to MBS, now is a great time to get started.
MBS has a strong inventory of used and new books. Submit your store’s wantlist to us as soon as possible to improve wantlist fulfillment and provide students with more low-cost textbook options so they can select what best fits their learning style and budget.
Best practices to maximize your wantlist fulfillment:
- Send in your list as soon as possible. You can always add more adoptions as you get them.
- Request to have your wantlist reworked to ensure your list is compared against our inventory on a daily basis.
- Keep your bin open for as long as you can because with reworks, the longer it is open, the more books you can get.
Additionally, your store might want to consider:
- Discussing opening buyback options with your MBS representative – MBS has a variety of options available to help stores offer students more opportunities to sell back their books.
- Adding rental and/or guaranteed buyback programs next term – Rentals and guaranteed buyback are a great way to offer students cost savings and attract more foot traffic. Read about how MBS can help your store with rental and guaranteed buyback.
As always, contact your MBS representative if you have any questions or need assistance.
Defining Ordering Terminology
Are you new to the textbook ordering process and/or not entirely sure what some of the industry jargon means? That’s okay. We are here to help. Below, you will find a list of common MBS terminology used around textbook ordering. If you are curious about a term that isn’t on this list, simply leave a comment below.
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- Wantlist — The list of books your store will need for the upcoming term based on faculty adoptions and what you expect to sell.
- Bin and Hold — A bin-and-hold order is left with MBS for a set amount of time. During that time, more books are added to your bin through reworks or as you update your wantlist with new titles and/or quantities. You will then receive your consolidated order in one shipment, or you can choose to have several orders arrive on designated dates.
- Reworks — Reworks take advantage of MBS’ fresh inventory, giving your store first pick of new inventory as it arrives daily. We are constantly getting new shipments of books in the warehouse. So rather than just comparing your wantlist to a single snapshot of our inventory, reworks compare your list to our inventory multiple times over an extended length of time. This gives you access to books that might not have been available when the list was first compared. This helps increase your fill rate.
- ASAP order — An ASAP order is compared against a snapshot of our inventory when the order is placed. Your order will be compiled and shipped to you within 24 hours.
- Quote — If your store offers guaranteed buyback or rental textbooks, you can submit the list of books your store is supplying students to MBS. MBS will send back your guaranteed rebate amounts for each qualifying title. At the end of term, simply send the titles of your choice to MBS to take advantage of your locked-in price quote.
- Open-to-buy — The number of books your store would like to purchase.
- SimpleSource — An MBS ordering tool designed to help college stores maximize wholesale and/or marketplace wantlist fulfillment with minimal effort. It is free and available to all college stores.
- Realtime Ordering — Order online 24/7 with up-to-the-minute details on available textbook inventory at servicecenter.mbsbooks.com.
- Directlink — Fast computer-to-computer electronic ordering for MBS system users.
- EZ Link — Easy electronic order processing for non-MBS users.
- Fill rate — The percentage of your wantlist that is filled: copies delivered / copies ordered.
- Cycle — Through our ordering tool SimpleSource, we offer stores three discount tiers. Within SimpleSource, you can select the percentage of your list that you would like MBS to fulfill through our traditional inventory models. You can then select from the discount tiers which level you would like to start with. As fulfillment progresses, you can cycle through pricing tiers, providing access to a greater number of books while keeping the overall average cost down. When you initiate your SimpleSource order, we recommend setting up cycles for each discount tier. With each new fulfillment cycle, you will continue to expand the inventory selection available to your store.
- Marketplace — The marketplace is the home of third-party sellers. Through SimpleSource, MBS offers stores an easy tool to source textbooks from a safe and vetted textbook marketplace.
- MBS Rental — Rental is an easy way to save students money and increase your store's margins and market share. Now is the perfect time to make sure your store and students get all the benefits that come with the MBS rental program. Our rental program offers college stores competitive pricing, guaranteed rebates, timely payments, the ability to purchase inventory from any source, and no contract or agreements.
- Publisher Consignment Rentals — MBS partners with publishers to support their consignment rental programs. MBS provides book distribution and reporting services for these programs. These programs differ from store owned inventory rental programs in that the publishers own the rental book assets and will either recommend or dictate rental fees and will set the terms and conditions. A publisher consignment rental check-in will be processed using the same methods as other rental check-ins. Books must be returned in reusable condition. Partner with your Territory Manager and store contacts prior to the start of the buyback/rental check in for instructions on the processing/handling of publisher consignment rentals.
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