OSU University Store’s Starla Marshall has acquired a trove of industry wisdom in her 30 years of collegiate retail. As Textbook Manager, she ensures that OSU’s 20,000-plus students have the right course materials for thousands of classes offered each term.
Topics: course materials, college store', future of retail
The Georgia Southern University Store takes pride in serving its campus community. Whether it’s through affordability initiatives, campus engagement or an outstanding loyalty program, the store strives to ensure every customer gets the best service. One way they make that possible is by adapting with industry changes.
Course materials are a vital part of education. Without the necessary materials for class, student performance suffers, and students can easily fall behind. This is one of the reasons why college affordability and textbook affordability are such important issues in higher education. The “Navigating Complex Course Material Trends” white paper gives your campus store a complete guide to today’s most effective cost-saving solutions.
As universities work to become more inclusive, they are turning to new methods of course material selection and delivery. The goal: reduce costs and increase student preparedness. Industry innovations are growing in popularity — like print OER, courseware and inclusive access, which incorporates textbook charges into tuition.
As an answer to the demand for more affordable course material options, publishers developed the publisher consignment rental program. Publisher consignment rentals are a collection of rental-only titles that have been selected by the publisher. These books are offered at a lower price point than a new book and provide faculty with the latest editions for their classrooms. But what does that mean for the college store? Recently, we with sat down with the Mineral Area College Bookstore Manager Aaron Miller to discuss his experience carrying publisher consignment rentals.
Topics: course materials, textbook delivery, textbooks
Located on the main campus of the University of Kansas, the KU Bookstore serves a large student population. As other stores closed and the online student population grew, KU Bookstore’s customer base ballooned. The sheer volume of people being directed to their store made it increasingly difficult to provide all students with the great service they expect. To help streamline the textbook purchasing process, the KU Bookstore made some changes to incentivize online ordering.
Minnesota West Community College Bookstores used to distribute textbooks on three of their five campuses. However, as the course material industry and the campuses evolved, that method became less efficient. Coming together, the bookstores decided that a warehouse distribution model made the most sense for their students and campuses. We recently sat down with Worthington Campus Bookstore Manager Melissa Gehl to discuss their new textbook distribution process and how students and faculty have responded.
Topics: course materials, wholesale textbooks, sourcing
Recently, we sat down with Corporate Marketing Representative Lillian Brooks to discuss SimpleSource, MBS’ new ordering tool that college stores already love. SimpleSource saves time and money by helping bookstores efficiently source wholesale and marketplace inventory.
Topics: digital content, print, course materials
“Print is dead.”
“Digital will never last.”
Everyone has an opinion about the print vs. digital debate. Facts and figures can be quoted for both sides, making a compelling argument for each. The cost of print can be too much for students to shoulder. Retention is harder to achieve with digital. Back and forth, the argument can go on forever because the truth is neither platform is inherently bad or good. Both have unique pros and cons that make the decision about which one to choose nearly impossible.
Improving the customer experience doesn’t have to include investing money on a store redesign or flashy events. In fact, there is a fairly easy solution. Customers want shopping to be easier. Sometimes, shoppers simply want to get in and out of the store as quickly as possible.
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