CSC Update: SUMMER 2024
CSC Update is a regular communication from Campus Stores Canada to keep members informed of industry updates and CSC’s current projects and initiatives.
IN THIS ISSUE:
What’s ahead:
CSC has finalized our schedule for upcoming virtual sessions this year. There may be changes to topics, and the exact dates may change, but here is everything we have planned for the year ahead! Just a note that all the times below are in Eastern Time, please don’t forget to convert to your local time zone.
Getting Ready for RUSH
Join us for this pre-Rush meeting, open to members of all roles.
August 22 at 12:00 PM ET
Hot Products Showcase
Let’s recap: what sold during Rush? What didn’t? Join us for this store to store session to share hot products and ideas for general merchandise(GM).
September 19 at 12:00 PM ET
Industry Trends
Get insights from across the community
October 24 at 12:00 PM ET
Working Smarter, Not Harder
We all have to wear multiple hats and balance conflicting priorities. How do we make our stores more efficient?
November 21 at 12:00 PM ET
Is that the best you can do?
Join us for tips to prepare for the buying season, advice for working with vendors and how to maximize your open-to-buy.
December 19 at 12:00 PM ET
Annual General Meeting
January 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM ET
Building positive relationships with faculty members
Let’s discuss how to manage critical relationships within the campus community.
February 27 at 12:00 PM ET
What do the vendors think?
What can stores do to increase sales? Join us for this session with select vendor partners sharing their perspective on working with campus stores.
March 20 at 12:00 PM ET
Connecting with your students
How are stores finding success by partnering with students? Is it competitions, student groups, student government, teams or all of the above?
April 17 at 12:00 PM ET
Future growth categories, measuring eBook platform success and missteps, adoption platforms, delivering service excellence.
May 15 at 12:00 PM ET
Let's talk about Customer Service
What are the best practices for customer service? What can stores do to ensure their customers have a good experience and keep coming back?
June 26 at 12:00 PM ET
CSC Statement to Cengage RE: Change of Discount on Digital Products
The following letter was sent to Cengage Canada on July 18.
The Board of Directors and CENGAGE are in the process of scheduling a follow-up call to further discuss this matter.
“On June 26, 2024, Cengage Canada issued a notice to Campus Stores that the Cengage discount on digital products is moving from 10% to 5%, effective August 1, 2024. At the time, this change applied to all Cengage digital products. An update was sent out on July 16, stating that the change would not apply to stand-alone eBooks, but will apply to any digital products that include online learning platforms offered by Cengage, effective August 15, 2024.
Campus Stores Canada (CSC) has heard from many of its members about how this decision will negatively impact their stores, particularly their ability to continue offering Cengage digital products to students. Members have also expressed their concerns that this decision reflects a step away from a collaborative partnership between stores and Cengage.
CSC is asking Cengage Canada to reconsider this decision and restore the Cengage discount on all digital products back to 10%.
Impact on Campus Stores, Students and Faculty
Campus Stores are retail environments that students rely on to acquire course materials requested by faculty and offer options to purchase in-person or online. While not incurring physical inventory costs, Campus Stores must maintain a margin on digital products to cover staffing costs, transaction fees and other overheads mandated by their institution. Campus Stores operate on a cost recovery model for course materials and Campus Stores are challenged to compensate for declining print sales. With the increased usage of digital products on campus, faculty and students look to the Campus Store for accurate
information, front-line technical support and guidance.
This change in discount will make it difficult for Campus Stores to recover their costs when selling Cengage digital products with online learning platforms. For example, this equates to a reduction in net margin from 7% to 2% after credit card processing fees. As increasing the selling price makes Campus Stores less competitive, students will look elsewhere for their course materials or purchase directly from Cengage, disconnecting the Campus Store from the process.
As a result, Campus Stores will no longer be able to offer support to students who purchase elsewhere and students with funding such as scholarships or sponsored accounts will not be able to purchase their digital materials through the Campus Store. This also reinforces the negative price perceptions students already
have about purchasing course materials and increased costs are at odds with affordability initiatives on campus.
Campus Stores work directly with faculty to supply required course materials and Cengage’s decision can lead to faculty choosing alternate course material options that are supported by the Campus Store. Affordability concerns can make Open Educational Resources (OER) look even more attractive to faculty.
Potential Impact to Cengage
The potential impact to Cengage with this decision is that Campus Stores will no longer be able to facilitate transactions of Cengage digital products. Instead of leveraging partnerships with Campus Stores, Cengage representatives working directly with individual faculty may cause a need for increased capacity to fulfil orders of digital products. In addition to driving student traffic to Cengage, there will also be an increased demand for technical support for students who purchase directly as the Campus Store will not be able to help with refunds, questions or other troubleshooting.
Conclusion
Cengage Canada’s decision to lower its discount on digital products that include online learning platforms will have a significant impact on Campus Stores, students, and faculty. The result could drive costs up for everyone, which will have a negative impact on the course material industry. What Cengage gains by decreasing its discount, will be lost with increased costs in supporting faculty and students directly. Campus Stores Canada is asking Cengage Canada to reconsider this decision and to restore its discount on all digital products back to at least 10%.”
Membership Renewal
COMING IN AUGUST
This is a friendly reminder that your membership renewal for September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025 will be arriving in your inbox in August.
In addition to the renewal, we will also be conducting our annual member roster update during this time. This helps us ensure we have the most accurate information for each member.
We appreciate your continued support of Campus Stores Canada. Your membership is vital to our ability to provide you with valuable resources, networking opportunities, and advocacy on your behalf.
Look out for your renewal email in August!
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out to Greg McPherson.
Member and Industry News
This section of our CSC Update is a place where we can share your news. Share with us information including who is retiring from your store, who is new to your store, what is happening in the industry, share an interesting article you think other members should see. Please email greg@campusstores.ca information you would like highlighted in our next CSC Update.
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News for this month!
Conference update
Campus Stores Canada continues to work through our big plans for the 2025 conference. We’ve already got a lot of work done on our program, are nearing launch for our exhibitors, and are excited to give you a lot more information about the Campus Stores Conference 2025. There’s so much we get to tell you very soon.
Recent Posts in Member Space
Where are you getting branded stationary? Sam Willis of Lakeland College has been working with Rolex Plastics & Printing and is looking for a way to reduce her freight costs. Do you have suggestions?
Elisa Morera of York U, Ashish Talwar of Algonquin College, Danielle Brown of Dalhousie, Francois Beliveau of Fanshawe College, and Shannon Blackadder of U of C all discussed the changes to Cengage’s discounts on digital materials from 10 to 5% and its effects.
Trish Linden-Teasdale of St. FX, Ashish Talwar of Algonquin College, and Amanda Bennett of Fanshawe College had a conversation about selling laptops. Fanshawe has been working with their IT department to sell through used tech and have sold approximately 500 units in 15 months.
Are you having issues with the Cengage B2B website? Francois Beliveau of Fanshawe College is getting orders shipped to the wrong campus and is wondering if he’s the only one seeing this problem.
Do you have success stories of getting students to come to the bookstore on move in weekend? Ken Munro of Fanshawe College is looking to hear how you do it on your campus.
If you have questions you can get answers as well! Email books@campusstores.ca for course materials questions, merch@campusstores.ca for general merchandise questions, or members@campusstores.ca to reach everyone!
Happy to Help!
If you have any questions, need support, or are interested in becoming more involved with CSC, you can email me at greg@campusstores.ca or call me at 1 (888) 288-4044.