Repositioning USF Bookstore for Higher Sales

Marketing Analytics Project by Derrick Niello, Jaclyn Anku, Malvika Jain, Shahira Durrani & Giannina Llamosas Salas

Executive Summary

PROBLEM: Low sales by USF Bookstore to MBA students at the downtown campus.

SOLUTION METHOD: We surveyed the students and drew perceptual maps to understand the current positioning for USF Bookstore and find areas of opportunity for the future.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Offer books at lower cost, reduce delivery time, improve ease of ordering.

FINDINGS: There are many performance gaps in areas like cost and delivery that USF Bookstore can overcome by taking advantage of its internal connection with USF MBA students.

Low Sales to 101 Howard MBA students

Increase Sales by 10%

SUCCESS METRICSPROBLEM STATEMENT

“I would love to see that 21% increase to 31%”- Patrick Beven, USF Bookstore Manager

21% 10%

This bar represents % of MBA students enrolled

bought fromUSF bookstoreIn Spring 2014.

increasewanted

Remaining 69%

Perceptual Mapping – Why?

MODEL SELECTION

21% bought fromUSF bookstoreIn Spring 2014.Total of 215MBA books sold

1. To find what do students think of USF Bookstore, compared to competitors. 2. To find and move to an opportunity gap & improve sales.

Perceptual Mapping – How?

STEPS INVOLVED

Criteria Selection for Survey

StudentSurvey &Analysis

Narrowed down criteria for Mapping

Mapping&Analysis

Recomm-endations

Asked students what matters to you, where do you buy books?And did secondary Research.

Asked students to rate x, y, z book stores on the basis of a, b, c factors.

Picked the most important of a, b, c factors for mapping.

Found performance gaps and positioning of USF bookstore relative to competitors.

Next steps.

1 2 3 4 5

Step 1/5: Criteria Selection for Survey

PRIMARY RESEARCH

We asked students where do you buy textbooks from and why?By email & personal interviews.

Thus we got our top competitors –AmazonCheggeBay

Copy of email sent to students.

Step 1/5: Criteria Selection for Survey

SECONDARY RESEARCH

We researchingreviews and forums like Yelp, Consumer Affairs website, lifehacker and got top factors of concern to students, such as CostDelivery speedetc

Step 2/5: Survey & Analysis

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Copy of survey given to students. Total 25 USF MBA respondents.

Step 2/5: Survey & Analysis

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Importance of each factor to students

Cost matters most

Delivery, availability next

Easy to order next

Rental next

Kindle, Returns last

Step 2/5: Survey & Analysis

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Amazon

outperforms

in all. Scale 1 to

6.

USF Bookstore Amazon

Chegg eBay

USF lowest in

what matters to

Students the

most – cost.

Q:

Where is

opportunity?

Step 3/5: Narrowed down criteria for mapping

Importance to student

USF Bookstore’s ability to improve(Scored on the basis of info from USF Bookstore Manager)

Low Cost

Book availability

Rental Option

Ease to order

Kindle Option

Fast delivery

East returns

High

High

Cost: AvailabilityStep 4/5: Mapping & AnalysisCost vs Book availability

Cost: AvailabilityStep 4/5: Mapping & AnalysisCost vs Delivery

Cost: AvailabilityStep 4/5: Mapping & AnalysisCost vs Ease of ordering

Cost: AvailabilityStep 4/5: Mapping & AnalysisBook availability vs Delivery

Cost: AvailabilityStep 4/5: Mapping & AnalysisEase of ordering vs Delivery

Cost: AvailabilityStep 4/5: Mapping & Analysis

COST VS DELIVERY EASE OF ORDERING VS DELIVERY

Why?Cost most important to student. USF needs to catch up.In Delivery, USF can easily leap above competitors.

Why?In this map USF is closest to competitors. There is good possibility of catching up.

Result: No opportunity gaps. Only performance gaps.The 2 maps that stand out are:

Step 4/5: Mapping & Analysis

Test scenarios in Excel

Step 5/5: Recommendations

Offer Lower costs

Improve Delivery

ImproveEase of ordering

HOW?

Step 5/5: Recommendation 1: Offer Lower Costs

New book selling price is non-negotiable.

To sell old books at low cost- Ask Professors to submit

coursebook names early. If there is delay, investigate and find out why.

- Encourage students to sell books back at term end by

a) Email reminderb) Incentive on discount in next bookc) Buying back from them at 101

Howard itself

Step 5/5: Recommendation 2: Improve Delivery

Book Buy & Sell Event@ 101 Howard

A day at the start of each semester for buying-selling of MBA books at the downtown campus.

Offer buyers low, used book cost.

Cut down delivery time to on-spot time of 5 minutes only.

Beat competitors by taking advantage of physical proximity.

Step 5/5: Recommendation 3: Improve ease of ordering

Include a shortcut link for students to order textbooks in their Student dashboard.Pre-upload books to orderas per student’s courses.

Step 5/5: Recommendation 3: Improve ease of ordering

Reduce steps in ordering book. Check market comparison for ease of ordering.

CHEGG home page Amazon home page

Step 5/5: Recommendation 3: Improve ease of ordering

Reduce steps in ordering book. Check market comparison for ease of ordering.

ebay home page USF bookstore home page

Step 5/5: Recommendation 3: Improve ease of ordering

Reduce steps in ordering book. Check market comparison for ease of ordering.

Now, many steps. Suggested, direct access like competitors.

Thank you! Questions or Comments?