Transitioning to an online bookstore can come with many unavoidable challenges to overcome. Eastern Arizona College, a community college in Thatcher, Arizona wasn’t immune to those challenges and joined us on this month’s live webinar, Transitioning to an Online Bookstore: How Eastern Arizona College launched an online bookstore and brought the campus-store management in-house.
Webinar guests included:
- Trae Morris, Bursar at Eastern Arizona College
- Heidi Morris, Bookstore Manager at Eastern Arizona College
Webinar highlights:
- Eastern Arizona College previously worked with a third-party vendor to manage its campus store and sell books exclusively through the physical space. The school made the decision to shift course textbooks to an online bookstore through Akademos and bring the campus bookstore management back in-house.
- EAC experienced a number of challenges along the way, including varying launch timelines, campus renovations, and a complete school rebranding at the same time.
- Along with the new campus store and shifting books online, EAC also introduced a new program called the Bookstore Credit Program. Through this initiative, students are granted a $500 line of credit per semester to use toward course materials. With loan disbursement times varying and oftentimes not aligning with the start of the semester, the line of credit offered immediate funds students can use toward their materials. Trae Morris, Bursar at EAC, shares why they decided to offer this program and the details of how it works for their school.
