The perennial Fall Rush news story about high textbook pricing is still in action, only this time, local channel 4 KOMO in Seattle is reporting great things about the bookstore in the evening news.

The University of Washington’s CEO Bryan Pearce does an excellent job presenting both UW’s textbook rental partnerships and its Verba comparison shopping site. You can catch it in the article at this link. Or you can watch it in the video below – comparison textbook shopping is discussed the second segment starting at about 2:06 (sorry for the ads):

The goal is to erase the negative perception many students have about book store pricing, and so far, it’s working. “Previously I just used Amazon, but now I use [the comparison shopping website],” said UW student Kevin Bukoskey.

It’s great to see stories about the successful efforts of stores to save their students money. Congrats to University Book Store!

This morning the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Jeff Young takes a look at textbook price comparison services in his Wired Campus blog. While both established retailers like Amazon and student projects like BookSavr.com are offering comparison shopping applications, Young notes that campus retailers aren’t resting on their laurels:

Several campus bookstores are fighting back against online retailers by offering their own price-comparison Web services…. Nearly 100 college bookstores have added the research feature to their Web sites with the help of a company called Verba, started by recent Harvard University graduates.

And the strategy seems to be working:

Estella McCollum, director of KU Bookstores at the University of Kansas, which set up the service last year, said that she was nervous at first, but that in about 80 percent of the cases, students chose to buy from the bookstore rather than from an online competitor. The site tracks when students do choose alternatives and recommends price cuts to store managers. And when students do click through to the Amazon.com link, the bookstore at least makes a small commission for sending them.

To take a look at the full article, hop on over to the Wired Campus blog here.

Campus Marketplace, the insightful e-newsletter put out each week by the National Association of College Stores, led December 17’s issue with a story entitled, “Show Students There’s Nothing to Hide.”

You can read it here in full.

The article discusses the experience that two campus stores – UC Davis Bookstore and KU Bookstore at the University of Kansas – have had running the Verba Compare (price comparison) shopping application.

Check out the article for a thorough look at how stores are faring with price comparison shopping on their websites.

The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article this morning on the changing landscape for campus stores. As many stores across the country see declining textbook revenues, the article discusses some of the innovative measures stores are taking to adapt.

Much of the article focuses on Estella McCollum’s efforts at KU Bookstores, the University of Kansas. In addition to her exciting Jayhawk Ink print-on-demand operation, the article highlights KU’s price comparison technology through Verba:

And when it comes to price, college bookstores suffer a disadvantage, according to many store managers. After all, textbooks have become synonymous with high prices, scorned by students, professors, and legislators as their costs have risen far faster than inflation. And since college bookstores have been Textbook Central, many students assume that prices on everything there will be high.

So the Kansas store recently added a price-comparison tool to its Web site. Students click the courses they’re taking from a menu, and the site pulls up a list of required textbooks and shows what each title would cost in the campus bookstore, on Web retailers like Amazon.com, or from a textbook-rental service that the university recently formed a partnership with. The comparison tool was made by Verba Inc., a company started by recent Harvard University graduates who are working with college bookstores around the country.

In more than 80 percent of cases, students who tried the comparison tool chose to buy a new or used textbook at the traditional bookstore, says Ms. McCollum. And when students clicked through to the Amazon.com link, the bookstore at least made a small commission for sending them. ‘We are building that trust with the customer that we’re trying to provide a service that is relevant to them,’ she told me.

The full article can be read here: http://chronicle.com/article/College-20-As-Textbooks-Go/125363/

The Oread, the University of Kansas’ employee newsletter, just published an article on KU Bookstore’s innovative efforts to expand student options for course materials this Fall. The article fronts with a discussion of KU Bookstore’s price comparison application:

The store has launched a new tool on its website, kubookstore.com, that allows students to search for books they need by course, then compare pricing options between buying it at the store, renting it, buying it from Amazon.com or Half.com or, for selected titles, having a version printed in the Kansas Union.

KU is one of a small number of universities in the nation offering the service. Estella McCollum, director of the KU Bookstore, said KU is one of only four “large schools” taking part in the program to help campus bookstores be more competitive in the online marketplace.

“I think students have appreciated having the option,” McCollum said of the store’s new analytical tool. ‘We can show them that, yes, you can afford the book and pay less.”

The article, which serves as a great example of how price comparison can yield positive publicity for campus stores, can be read in full at http://www.oread.ku.edu/~oread/2010/september/7/stories/books.shtml.