Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

While you can’t add more hours to your day, it is possible to free up more time by simplifying campus store processes. MBS provides college stores with the tools they need to simplify their day-to-day, week-to-week and year-to-year store tasks. From ordering to receiving and buyback, MBS has the resources you need to save time.

3 Invaluable MBS Tools to Streamline Campus Store Processes

1. Service Center

MBS Service Center provides college stores with a variety of tools and information to help streamline textbook management. Through Service Center, you can easily order books using our Realtime Ordering functionality. Start a bin-and-hold order (submit your want list to MBS for a set length of time and request reworks to maximize fulfillment) or an ASAP order. This 24/7 online ordering tool gives you up-to-the-minute details on inventory availability.

Service Center also makes it easy to track shipments coming from MBS or those that have been shipped to MBS. View and/or email invoices and packing slips. Generate your own shipping and receiving reports.

2. SimpleSource

SimpleSource is an unparalleled tool for managing your want list fulfillment. Through SimpleSource, your store accesses a wide array of inventory, including new and used wholesale books at below-market costs as well as the ability to shop the course material marketplace.

Select the percentage of your list that you would like MBS to fulfill through our traditional and/or marketplace inventory models and select your want list parameters (pricing tiers, start and end dates, etc.). Lists managed through SimpleSource are automatically reworked multiple times a day – maximizing fulfillment. In turn, stores have been able to improve their margins and pass along greater student savings.

Some of the other SimpleSource benefits include:

• Immediate access to pricing
• Saving time by not having to submit multiple orders, request individual reworks, streamlined order reconciliation and simplified accounting.
• Simplified marketplace sourcing and access to more off-priced wholesale inventory
• You can receive all of your order (wholesale and marketplace) at once – Not multiple shipments with multiple invoices
• Realtime fulfillment updates

3. The MBS System

The MBS collegiate retail system was designed specifically for college stores. Working closely with campus stores to understand the real-life day-to-day functions of the store and how to best support this unique branch of retail, we have developed a truly flexible, affordable state-of-the-art collegiate retail system designed to streamline your store processes.

“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.