Advocacy Articles

They'll Be Back — And You'll Be Ready!
By Mark Palmore, Connect2One Institutional Store Advocate

Rest assured that with the enormous amounts of money the online booksellers have received from investors, they will be on your campus again in January urging your students to save time and money by purchasing their textbooks online. Even though the online booksellers' sales have been less than impressive (they are not admitting that their sales are weak, but insiders in publishing are reeling at the large returns), they have a virtual bottomless pit of marketing money. They will continue to use those funds to pay students to blanket your campus with marketing, marketing, and more marketing. But, do you know what the research has proven? Online booksellers can not even come close to the service level and convenience of the "Brick and Mortar" college bookstore. In fact, if you are one of the many stores that has already set up a Web site and become a "Click and Mortar" store you know that the students have no reason to even consider the online booksellers. Sure, there have been allegations that the textbook prices are lower online, but we all know that the online-only booksellers are not being totally honest regarding the savings. We applaud the efforts of NACS in the lawsuit against VarsityBooks.com!

But this time around you'll be ready. Undoubtedly, you are already preparing for the onslaught of negative advertisements and "in your face" marketing from the online booksellers. To help you combat those efforts and promote your store, Connect2One has developed advertising pieces and opinion editorial articles for your benefit. We recommend that you place the advertisements and articles in your local campus newspaper. Now is the time to get the other side of the story out to the students, namely THE TRUTH! Your students are very savvy, they know when they are getting a good deal, and buying textbooks from the online-only booksellers is NOT a good deal. Let your customers know that your bookstore always has been and always will be the BEST place for students to buy their course materials. Yes, the online booksellers will be back on your campus — AND YOU'LL BE READY!