Online bookstores entice students to shop around

From bagels to bouncy balls, online bookstores are offering various promotions to get students to buy their books on the Internet.

Many Web sites, such as varsitybooks.com, bigwords.com and textbooks.com, now offer online textbook shopping. College textbooks are big business, with the market for new college textbooks totaling $5 billion, according to the National Association of College Stores. Online stores are attempting to gain a share of the textbook market by catering directly to students.

Jonathan Kaplan, vice president of communications and strategic planning at varsitybooks.com, said the company varies its marketing techniques based on advice from the company's campus representatives.

"(The promotions) really vary from place to place," he said. "Part of the benefit of having the student representatives is that they know the best promotions to offer on each campus."

Eric Young, McCormick junior and lead campus representative for varsitybooks.com, said the company offers several promotions at Northwestern ranging from free shipping to free food.

"We did a promotion with Einstein Brothers Bagels where we gave away free bagels," Young said. "We hit the dorms and gave away free coupons."

Bigwords.com offers free shipping on all orders of more than $35. Medill freshman Cecilia Wong ordered several titles online Winter Quarter from bigwords.com. She said prices were good, but she was not as happy with delivery.

"They came in two batches," she said. "The first half came about a week after I ordered it, and the second batch came about a week later. It was within the time frame, but I thought it would be faster."

Despite the delay, Wong said she was happy with the quality of the used books she ordered.

"They were actually better than the ones at (Student Book Exchange)," she said. "The ones I got were in good shape."

Campus bookstores have entered the online market as well. Jerie Bray, manager at SBX, said the store works with efollett.com in a "click and mortar" concept in which students can order books online and pick them up from the store.

"With us having both the online and the store, we're doing very well," Bray said. "We're never closed because you can order online at any time."

The prices for new books vary among online stores. A new copy of Edwards and Penney's fifth edition of "Calculus with Analytic Geometry" costs $102.74 including shipping at varsitybooks.com, while bigwords.com charges $99.52. SBX charges $108 for the book. Used copies of the book cost $81 at SBX and $86.29 at bigwords.com. Varsitybooks.com does not offer used textbooks.

Medill sophomore Nick Runkle said he compares prices online and at bookstores to get each book for the cheapest price offered. Runkle said he saved $10 on one of his books by ordering at textbooks.com.

While he was able to find cheaper books online Winter Quarter, Runkle said he found the online bookstores to be more expensive this quarter, so he purchased his books from SBX.

"This quarter none of them were any cheaper than the bookstore," he said. "I've had mixed results."

Despite some price differences with campus bookstores, Kaplan said ordering textbooks online will increase as students see the advantages.

"We leave it up to students to compare prices to their campus bookstore," he said. "As more and more students learn about the benefits of shopping online, more and more students will be doing that."