Buying textbooks in college is a yearly struggle that no
student looks forward too. Not only do you end up paying way too much for them
(let’s be honest, they can cost as much as a semester’s worth of rent in the
dorm) but half the time, you don’t actually use the books in your class or you
use them that one time for that one assignment that you just made up anyway. Some
companies have set out to change this, making online textbook shopping a huge
commodity among college students. Not only can you find your books for cheaper,
but you can also sell them back, usually for more money than your campus
bookstore will buy them for, at little to no cost to you. In this post, I will
give a definitive ranking of some of the best and sketchiest online textbook
retailers and show you how consumer awareness and marketing research can play a
huge part in becoming a successful retailer.
The Great: Chegg & Amazon
#1 – Chegg
Chegg has done incredible things in the ways of online
textbook retail. From impeccable customer service to the added benefits of
their site, this online retailer has shown that the way to college students
hearts (and hard earned cash) is by treating us with the respect we want.
Clearly there’s a lot going on with Chegg’s website, and for
good reason. In the last few years, Chegg has established itself as a top
competitor in textbooks. Their prices usually run close to Amazon’s and I can
honestly say that they are one of my favorite sites to use when it comes time
to buy my books. The process is simple; just type in the name or ISBN of the
book and boom, you can look at the book and a list of prices for renting or
buying the book. Want to know if the e-book is cheaper? Well the price is right
there and it just takes a few clicks to see the difference between all of them.
The company understands that students want to feel like a
priority and that education goes beyond the classroom. Not only can you buy
textbooks on the site, but there is a college blog, online tutoring, and internship
opportunities. They grasped that students want a place where they can go to get
the help they need for school, as well as unwind after a long day of classes.
Through motivational emails and tweets, Chegg has used their marketing research
to update their site as they learn more and more about the students they are
trying to help. Students were having trouble with their classes, their online
tutoring service was born. Problems landing that internship? No problem when
Chegg creates a space designed to help students figure out what type of job
they want and the internships that can get them there. They have even been
known to send freebies with their textbooks just as an extra for purchasing
books from them. And if you need to sell or return a book back to them, no
problem. You know you will be getting the best price for them and if you’re
selling, the shipping is on them. Overall, Chegg has done a good job
understanding its target customers and marketing in a way that benefits them.
#2 – Amazon
When most people think of buying textbooks online, Amazon is
one of the first names that pops into their heads. Amazon has established it as
an online retailer to beat in just about every market you can think of. And
while textbooks are just a small little speck in the company’s overall goals,
they make up a large part of their site, especially for college students which
also make up a large part of their customers. Like Chegg, they also list their
prices for their various mediums as well as prices from other retailers.
Selling books back to them is also quite easy as they pay for shipping and only
ask that you drop it off at your nearest UPS.
While Amazon is already known for having impeccable customer
service, they are sure to use a few marketing research techniques to get them
there. One way is through surveys, usually presented by email after you make a
purchase. By asking basic questions about the purchase, Amazon has been able to
continue to provide excellent customer service in all of their many markets.
The Good: ValoreBooks & Textbooks.com
Textbooks.com
employs the marketplace strategy when it comes to textbook retail, comparing
various sites and showing the best prices for each. Competing with
Slugbooks.com and ValoreBooks, Textbooks.com has done a good job at
understanding its target market. By showing the prices of other textbook retailers,
Textbooks.com definietely has an appeal among students trying to find the
cheapest books possible. They also put the sale price for the book in case you
want to sell it back. However, there is little advertising done for the site in
general. Unlike Amazon and Chegg which are often advertised on sites such as
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Spotify, I hadn’t heard of Textbooks.com
until I started researching for this blog post.
Overall, they have a good business strategy. However, from a
marketing standpoint, the retailer could do a better job with its marketing
presence. By advertising on some of the actual retail sites, they might gain
more popularity as well as allow other retailers to see their competition and
sell on a different medium. They could also try marketing research methods such
as surveys, online observation, and through the use of social media. I am
excited to see in the near future how the company is doing, especially after
seeing its competitors like Chegg and Amazon gain more and more popularity.
ValoreBooks is a much lesser known site and is more of a
marketplace for textbooks, but it’s still a good Example for this blog post.
While they also have a place for the sale of used technology, their textbook
sections makes up the greatest part of their site. And while the site is still
probably a great place to find cheapter textbooks, there are some concerns with
their website and marketing efforts.
For starters, the central theme in color scheme of the
website as well as overall idea is a little lost in the homepage design. Where
Chegg and Amazon keep to a general color scheme, this tries to keep with a
color theme, but it gets lost in its bland design. And while they offer various
forms of social media, they have less sites that accredit them, which might
explain why they are less widely known. That also shows poor marketing efforts
on their part because at first glance, this website does not appeal to college
students, which would make up their target market.
The site also advertises that they beat Amazon, however,
their prices seem a little too good to be true and the other sites they use in
their marketplace are less known than ValoreBooks. Like a case of good
intentions executed poorly for this website in particular. That said, their
price guides are useful and by keeping things simple, it is easy to see where
everything is, which is nice when you are already stressed out buying
textbooks. That said, this company could probably do some good by conducting an
online survey and doing more marketing research on their target market and the
demographics for college students who would be using the site.
The Bad: Intel Education Study
So first I would like to say that Intel hasn’t had the best
marketing strategy in general as a company. It runs in many of our computers
and laptops and yet very few people think about the company at all. When I discovered
they had a study website that also sold textbooks I was intrigued. But as I
delved into the site, I quickly realized there is a reason that I had never
heard of it before. First, for the textbook I am using in this blog, there
isn’t even a picture for it. They also only offer one option, which is to rent
the book. Now I know renting is almost always cheapter, but there are certain
instances wehre it is beneficial to buy the book. And not only that, the site
offers very little information about any other form of the book, just a
description, price, and medium that is being sold or that is for rent.
In fact, their education study program is not advertised
well on their main website.
And while they offer an app, which is a good marketing
strategy where students are concerned, there is nowhere on the homepage that
shows any type of social media use or student connection. In fact, the only
marketing effort that the site actually has going for it is that it is
mentioned on Slugbooks.com. This reflects poor on this company in particular
because technology is their specialty so as far as online marketing strategies
go, Intel should be at the top of the list. However, this site falls flat and
overall exhibits poor execution as far as online retail goes.
The Worst: AbeBooks.com
#6 – AbeBooks.com
This website takes the cake for poor marketing strategies as
well as poor online presence. Not only is the website asthetically unpleasing
to the eye, there is little content on the homepage and the website overall
seems a little sketchy.
First, when I searched for the book, it was hard to use the
title because it just brought up obscure books with the same or similar title,
some of which weren’t’ even textbooks. When I used the ISBN number, this is
what comes up.
No picture, little information, and only one price and
medium. And while the site offers the book from other competitors, it seems a
little off-putting that their price is extremely cheap while their competitors
offer the book at a normal discounted price. There are no marketing efforts for
the site as well which is useful in that there are no ads accompanying the site
but there are also no ads for the site pretty much anywhere. The only way I
found it was once again mentioned on Slugbooks.com (and I do mean mentioned,
not talked about, the name just comes up as one of their retailers). Overall, I
would like to know more about the marketing strategies AbeBooks.com applies
because to me, it looks like little to none. In my opinion, I would be
surprised if long term the company makes it for very long because their site
definitely needs some work.
No comments:
Post a Comment