Revenue generating ideas help college stores supplement top-line revenue while expanding their customer base. Stores like the MECC (Mountain Empire Community College) Bookstore in Virginia have proactively worked to take on additional services and create new ways to bring customers into the store. We sat down with MECC Bookstore Manager Dora Hill to discuss the challenges her store faces and how she is working to overcome them.
Students are using social media daily, so it’s important for your campus bookstore to be a part of how students communicate. Marketing through social media will not only make your store competitive, it will provide a trustworthy source for students to purchase their books from each session.
Topics: college stores, spotlight, student tech
Student tech sales have revenue potential for college stores, especially on campuses where technology is deeply infused with the school’s mission. We sat down with Jake Swanson, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) University Store’s technology store manager, to talk about how his store competes with off-campus retailers.
Navarro Community College Bookstore Director, Terri Mitchell, knows how to host a successful campus event. Her bookstore organizes celebrations that promote the school, raise scholarship funds, bring prospective students to campus and foster deep ties with the college’s Texas community. This year, she co-led a talk about campus store events at the MEGA conference in Reno, Nevada, called “Food for Thought: What is your store worth to your campus and community?” It focused on creative ways to demonstrate your store’s value. Ms. Mitchell and her co-leader earned a standing ovation.
In the ever-changing landscape of collegiate retail, campus stores need revenue generating ideas that help fill in the financial gaps left by strained budgets and decreased textbooks sales. From pop-up shops to expanding bookstore services, campus stores develop ideas that push the boundaries of their traditional retail models to better serve their customers while generating additional top-line revenue. Recently, the Umpqua Community College Bookstore was given the opportunity to expand its service beyond campus and develop stronger community ties.
Topics: student engagement, campus bookstore, esports gear
How can campus stores participate in the gaming market? There are many ways that you can dive into these markets, but we suggest beginning with carrying video games in the store. This gives the 70 percent of student gamers a quick and easy location for purchasing new titles. It also gives new and returning students the opportunity to grab games when they come in to purchase next term’s books.
The classroom for the 2019 MBS Forums session on SimpleSource filled quickly. Attendees were eager to learn how users of the MBS retail management software get more used wholesale textbooks with this ordering tool.
Topics: buyback, campus store, textbooks
Now more than ever, it is important for campus stores to simplify and streamline buyback events. The College of the Holy Cross Bookstore has made its buyback a success by ensuring that its student body always has a consistent experience. Students can count on always getting the same great buyback service each term from the same familiar faces staffing the event. The store’s consistency ensures that students always know what to expect and where to get the best return on their textbooks.
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions (TGCS) Channel Sales Executive Lora Coggins opened her Forums 2019 session with a question of great import to campus retailers: Is brick and mortar here to stay?
The University of Arizona BookStores has cracked the code for converting social media engagement into store sales. Social media has tremendous potential to raise campus awareness and interest in store events and services. How can that potential be translated into a revenue generating idea for college stores?
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