Newegg Enters the Textbook Market
Things just got a little tougher for B&N Education.
The Cite reports that electronics retailer Newegg expanded its book section earlier this month. Newegg has long sold books (you just need to know where to look) and now it is also carrying textbooks.
"Textbooks are pretty fundamental to the college student, and we wanted to offer a different solution that makes buying them more convenient and more economical," Newegg COO James Wu said.
The textbooks can be found on the main Newegg website as well as the student-focused niche retail site that Newegg launched this summer.
The niche site is only open to those with a valid DotEDU email address. Students can use the site to get special deals on Newegg sales. Newegg is also offering students $20 off its annual Newegg Premier membership. This Amazon prime-like service offers free shipping, members-only deals, and a dedicated customer-service line.
Both the student-only store and the discount are part of Newegg’s effort to expand its business by tapping into the college market. It’s following in the footsteps of Amazon, which has partnered with several US schools, and eCampus, which runs virtual bookstores for over 150 high schools, colleges, and universities. This includes UW Milwaukee, where eCampus beat out Amazon.
While this is great news for students, it’s not so good news for B&N Education. This company recently spun off of B&N, and is a retailing solely of college bookstores. This is a tight market where the customers don’t have a lot of money, and now B&N Ed has one more competitor that can afford to undercut B&N Ed in this one market, and absorb the loss elsewhere.
image by Miles Away Farm
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Hack Education Weekly News | Co-Opt-Ed October 3, 2015 um 9:39 am
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