The Bookstore vs Amazon: ‘Berg Bookshop looks to compete with online retailers

While bookstores across the country are feeling the wake of online shopping’s semi-recent participation in textbook sales, many are reevaluating their options, with some shifting the focus to book rentals or even closing down their textbook-selling functions altogether.

The ‘Berg Bookshop takes pride in their independence; as a college-owned bookstore, they’re able to operate freely, without corporate restraints. With that comes the availability of extra customer satisfaction, and in return, extra customer loyalty.

“Here at Muhlenberg, we do have a very strong student loyalty that still buy their books from us,” said the Bookshop’s Manager Karen Normann. “We still have a strong interest in students ordering from us online, through our website, and also coming into the store.”

While bookstores at several large, state schools, such as Rutgers or Nebraska, are eliminating their textbook selling functions, both Textbook Coordinator Joe Hardenberg and Normann see no such compromise in Muhlenberg’s future.

“I don’t want to say it’s a trend at this point,” added Hardenberg. “I think stores are doing what they feel they have to on an individual basis to stay solvent. Having said that, I don’t see Muhlenberg transitioning to that in the near future. I think there’s enough of a demand by students here from what we see.”

Normann and Hardenberg both admit that sales have dropped, as is probably the case at most, if not all, college bookstores nationwide. In order to compete with outside sellers, Hardenberg and Normann have explored and implemented different options, including the online price-match feature on the bookstore’s website.

“There’s a software product that’s tied into our bookstore textbook system that enables us to enter a list of books and allows students to see competing prices against the bookstore,” said Hardenberg. “But it also kicks back a list of books that we’re not competitive on and says ‘if you want to adjust this price, here’s your price, here’s what the marketplace shows, do you want to change the price?’ I think that’s been helpful to us and definitely helpful to the students.”

By attending Student Government meetings, Hardenberg is able to gauge the factors affecting the textbook market.

“One of my burning questions was ‘what really drives the decision of whether to buy a book or not from us?’ Almost hands down, 90% of the time it was price,” said Hardenberg. “Students didn’t care where the book was coming from, if they had to wait a couple days for it they tend to buy based on price.”

In order to try to match competitive prices, the ‘Berg Bookshop has also began to shift its focus to enhancing the textbook rental program.

“For this semester, I’d say of all the books that were available, maybe 10 to 15 percent were rentable and those are predetermined prices by our wholesaler,” added Hardenberg. “In a lot of cases, they’re substantially lower than the purchase price.”

Upon in-store checkout, students are always given the option to rent a rentable book, offering to them that lower price that most responsible consumers look for. Noting the figures mentioned above, most students still prefer directly purchasing their books, whether it’s to keep them for future study or to sell back to the bookstore.

“I usually order from the bookstore and then I know they’ll be bought back which helps in the spring or the end of the fall semester,” said Ellen McAlpine, ‘18. “I reserve online, usually a week before classes start and then I just don’t open anything so if I don’t use a textbook, I can return it immediately.”

“I’ll try to buy from the bookstore because it’s easier, but if they have like a $200 book that I can find online for like, $30, I’ll do that,” added Rachel Szachara, ‘19. “If they don’t have it used in the bookstore, I’ll try to find it used online.”

Both McAlpine and Szachara were in agreement on the ease and simplicity that the ‘Berg Bookshop offers as opposed to the hassle of online retailers. Szachara also finds it’s more about the enjoyment in being able to “pick out the actual copy” that she gets.

Another alternative that the Bookstore has looked at are eBooks, which haven’t quite grabbed the attention (and money) of college students. Hardenberg finds that students prefer to have physical copies of their books to study with rather than electronic copies.

Although eBook prices were initially the lowest available, Hardenberg has observed that they’re climbing amongst the ranks of rental books, making the rental option even more sensible for some students.

Despite all of the efforts made through competitive pricing, rental programs, buy-backs and student feedback, the ‘Berg Bookshop finds their most important aspect to be the freedom and individuality of an independently owned bookstore.

“Muhlenberg, in the past, has always supported running the store ourselves because it gives a better customer service standpoint, we have better merchandise, and our identity is our own,” said Normann. “We’re proud to be owned by the college and run by the college and we feel we have a better store in that respect.”