Extending hours during home football games, offering secret sales, participating in on-campus events — the staff of The Ichabod Shop at Washburn University are always looking for new ways to make sure their store is an asset to the students and community they serve. This year, they added a promotion designed to address two common concerns for many students: how to save money on course materials and still receive them before the start of classes.
“We heard that the KU Bookstore offered two weeks of free shipping at the beginning of the term,” Course Material Coordinator Nikki Daniels said. "After talking with the staff there and learning how successful it was for them, we decided to run a similar promotion.”
Out of a total of 269 online orders, 76 customers took advantage of the free shipping offer.
“Overall, the response was great,” she said. “We think it was extremely helpful to have less people standing in lines at our registers during such a hectic time. And although it meant less foot traffic, where we might have sold other items, our sales were good this fall. So really, no complaints.”
Students also have the option to pre-order their course materials, both in-store and online. When they submit their orders by mid-July, they receive a 5% discount and the chance to win one of two textbook scholarships of up to $250 for the Spring 2017 semester.
“In addition to the discount and chance to win, we also include some freebies in the box with their orders,” Daniels said. “We start taking pre-orders in April or May — this year, we had a total of 225 pre-orders for the fall, with 145 submitted online and 80 on a paper form in the store.”
Both of these promotions are just part of the Ichabod Shop’s mission to provide great service and competitive prices on all of the course materials they offer.
"Their drive to help the Washburn University students succeed is remarkable, and it shows in their exceptional customer service and the variety of affordable course materials they offer in-store and online,” MBS Wholesale Marketing Representative Jeremy Hawkins said. “Each staff member is focused on greeting every student with a warm smile, a helpful hand and step-by-step guidance from the moment they enter the store.”
