Barnes & Noble First to Offer Multichannel Textbook Rental Program
Barnes & Noble College Booksellers LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble Inc., has created a multichannel textbook rental program for college students that the retailer says could result in millions of dollars of savings for U.S. college students. According to Barnes & Noble College, it is the first nationwide bookseller to offer a multichannel program.
The rental program enables students to rent textbooks by logging into their campus bookstore's e-commerce site. They also can rent from their campus Barnes & Noble bookstore. Students may pay for their rentals using any form of tender, including campus debit cards and student financial aid.
At the beginning of the 2009 fall semester, Barnes & Noble College test-piloted the rental program in three of its 636 campus bookstores. Since then, the program has expanded to 25 of its campus bookstores, including The Ohio State University, the University of Maryland, Borough of Manhattan Community College and University of South Carolina.
"We've had a tremendous response from students and faculty to our rental program and, as a result, have continued to expand it to other colleges and universities across the country," says Max Roberts, president of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers. "What makes our program so unique is that we've made saving on textbooks even easier for students by providing them the option of ordering their rentals online and having them shipped or picked up at their campus bookstore.
"We've always been about providing our students with convenient, cost-saving textbook options. We think our rental program does just that and has the additional benefit of providing an online solution," adds Roberts.
In the coming months, Barnes & Noble says it will dedicate significant resources to expanding its rental program to more of the colleges and universities it serves.
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