Most college students, graduates, and even some professors will agree that textbooks are costly. Constant demand, costs for writing and arranging, fees accrued for printing, and other factors turn books that are an absolute necessity into a pricey commodity to produce. Furthermore, the high production costs are stretched even more when a 50 to 100% mark-up is applied, making it even tougher for the students to afford.

The consistent demand sets into motion the chain of reactions that makes the book costlier for the students. When many college students ask for the same textbook every semester, the prices go up easily.

Colleges and universities need means to improve the student experience, improve retention rates and raise margins. More importantly, they need to meet the student demand for making college education more affordable. In this scenario, the bookstore can play a substantial role in supporting the educational mission and helping students achieve their motive of long-term success.

Like U of A bookstore, campus stores play a bigger role than being a mere retail store. It ranges from boosting students’ spirits to sharing textbook expertise, also contributing to the general retention and students’ successes.

1. Employing Technology to Improve Learning Outcomes

In today’s world, students expect technology in the educational sphere. The students have grown up in an era when everything has always been accessible. When these students arrive at college, they have the same expectations of easy availability.

That’s where digital course materials gain more importance nowadays. These course materials allow students access to digital materials beyond e-textbooks.

Students who suffer from disabilities can have a better learning experience with digital content. The faculty also stand to gain as it allows them the means to analyze the students’ grasp of the subject matter taught in the classroom, and their learning capabilities, using adaptive learning materials and OER courseware.

The analytics provided by these tools can provide real-time feedback to the students, which can help boost retention and increase graduation rates.

2. Improves Affordability

Surveys have shown that students spend less on course materials in subsequent years. Very few students had their study materials at the beginning of class. Textbooks and course materials are a vital aspect of learning, and without books, students learning would be affected in a big way.

The newer generation students are aware of their financial conditions and call for affordable education. Therefore, administration leaders are looking at all areas to help students save money for their education, including textbooks. The bookstore goes a long way in maximizing affordability for students, which helps impact education and learning positively.

3. Develops Student Experience

The whole impression of your college can be impacted by the experience the students have in the bookstore. As students gain positive experiences with the support of the bookstore, they feel a sense of acceptance into the campus. Interpersonal attention provides the students with another trusted avenue on campus to project their queries.

4. Convenience of Online Bookstore

As we have discussed earlier, the rising prices of textbooks have led students to go to online sources for purchasing textbooks. It also offers them the convenience of shopping while on the go and ordering from any device, like their phone or laptop.

For faculty, online bookstores offer an easy, organized platform for all their choices in course materials, reorganizing the process and providing visibility to newer options in course material that may be otherwise be hidden, often by design by competing publishers.

Universities that have a long-term vision and focus on the future understand that new generation students are more used to shopping online. Online university bookstores can also provide course lists, financial aid information, and payment method options by reaching out to students on their comfortable turf. This provides the students a familiar shopping experience that they are used to on various other platforms like Amazon or Uber.

Students can search for the books they need, read the description of the books on your website and directly go to the link to buy the books on the store, and can go to the store to pick up the books or return them if they find the book doesn’t work for them.

Conclusion

Textbooks are simply a vital part of student success. Students, who don’t have their course materials with them, cannot do well in class. The new generation students’ shopping experience involves ordering online and having items delivered to them. When finding books at stores is difficult, students go online to find them. Providing the students a convenient way to order books online and pick them up at the bookstore, they have an experience that combines the advantages of both. Students get the experience of interpersonal contact while sidestepping long queues. You can explore the books and course materials available on The University Of Alabama Supe Store.