How did college stores continue to serve campuses and students during a worldwide pandemic? We interviewed numerous stores about their response to the coronavirus, focusing on three areas: eCommerce, textbooks and campus service. Download the Guide to Quickly Adapting Your Store to Improve Online and In-store Service to hear about the updates stores made to continue to be competitive in a rapidly changing environment.
Every year, MBS holds two training events in our Columbia, Missouri, location for our system customers. The events help stores learn more about their collegiate retail system and exchange tips and tricks with other college stores that use the same tools. However, this year, we were unable to host our partner stores in Columbia. Instead, we created our first MBS Forums Virtual Summit event.
Last week, MBS hosted a weeklong virtual forums event where college stores discussed different ways they can use the MBS system to meet current industry demands. On Tuesday, the focus was on buyback and rental returns in 2020.
There’s a lot on students’ minds. Right now, the businesses that can provide them with the easy and convenient options they are looking for can win their business. We have selected three ways college stores are going above and beyond to provide students with better, more convenient service.
Spring and summer buyback were challenging for college stores. Stores needed a plan that would ensure student and staff health and safety and follow local, state and federal guidelines as they constantly evolved. Peninsula College Bookstore looked at the resources available to them and decided to offer students buyback quotes through virtual video chats.
Collegiate retail events build campus relevance. With excellent planning, campus stores can host events with a strong return on investment and become staples in campus life. We’ve culled advice from collegiate retail experts nationwide and found three proven best practices for planning successful bookstore events.
For the Washington and Lee University Store, detailed reporting is a must. They partnered with MBS Store Technology Solutions for their collegiate retail system in 2015 and found that the stronger, more detailed reporting better served their business intelligence needs.
When you walk into a department store and see a clearance rack, you probably check it out. The same is true for online shopping. When that Instagram ad catches your eye or you are simply in the mood to shop online, you still want a great deal. A dedicated clearance page on your site highlights the merchandise you need to move, makes it easy for customers to find a great deal and will inspire customers to visit your site more often.
The UMBC Bookstore’s Yum Shoppe has always been a student favorite. Bookstore Director Erin McGonigle remembers being a Yum Shoppe addict when she was a student. For the UMBC community, it truly is the convenience store with more. So, what do they do to inspire such student, alumni and community loyalty?
Every college store knows how important on-time faculty adoptions are. On-time adoptions can help lower costs for the store and the students. Adoptions also ensure the store has adequate time to source the materials it will need for the upcoming term and improve student buyback rates. However, there can be a disconnect between the campus store and faculty when it comes to faculty adoptions. In 2010, Utah State University changed how it handles faculty adoptions and it now averages a 94% on-time faculty adoptions rate.
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