Online book buying provides competition

The growing world of e-commerce has invaded the University's campus this fall in a big way, with an increasing number of options becoming available in the textbook market.

On a local scale, Shaman Drum Bookstore premiered a new Website this semester giving students the option of purchasing their books via the Internet. Customers of this service can avoid the long lines by prepaying and picking up their books in the first floor retail store.

Shamandrum.com is the retailer's response to the "changing buying habits of consumers," said Karl Pohrt, owner of the Shaman Drum Bookshop. Hoping to alleviate student dissatisfaction with standing in lines, the combination of the virtual store with the traditional brick and mortar store now offers another option, Pohrt said.

SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Daily Students crowd the cash registers yesterday at Ulrich's Bookstore located at East University and South University avenues.

The explosion of the e-commerce textbook market in recent months is "making it more competitive," said Rise St. Arno, Shaman Drum's Textbook Floor Manager.

At this time, "we haven't felt a crunch from online vendors out there," St. Arno said, but the online venture was started because "we wanted to head that off so that we didn't see a decrease in the future."

"In order for any retail business to survive, they're going to have to respond to the challenge of the Internet," Pohrt said, adding that "to avoid it is extremely silly and dangerous."

John Bates, a co-founder of Bigwords.com, said his e-commerce company is in the process of changing a system that has been set in its way for a long time. "We've already forced the traditional bookstore to sit up and take notice," Bates said.

Bigwords.com was launched at the end of August 1998, initially serving eight schools in California. Within two months, the company had sold to more than 200 campuses nationwide, Bates said.

With Bigwords.com experiencing growth measuring 15 to 20 times the previous sales every new semester, since its inception a year ago, Bates describes the company as a "fierce and ferocious competitor" in the annual $7 billion new and used textbook market.

Strong publicity campaigns on campuses across the nation and commercials on MTV speak to today's college student, said Bates, adding that the focus of Bigwords.com is "to serve the Gen-Y college market, ages 18 to 24."

Many new competitors have entered into the field of online textbook vendors this semester. "It's unbelievable how much noise there is," Bates said.

This "noise" has failed to sway some University students from the familiar long lines accompanying the start of each semester. Nick Koster, a Business junior, attributes his reluctance to buy online to a "fear of the unknown."

But still other students, like LSA sophomore Alicia Johnson, have found the growing range of options in the textbook market a welcome change. "I compared prices in the bookstore and online," said Johnson, who eventually purchased books from Bigwords.com. "I'm really happy that I saved $30," Johnson said.

VivaSmart.com is an online textbook company with a different twist. It is an independent company that offers a free textbook price-comparison service.

The vendor-neutral company, founded by Stanford University graduate students Thai Tran and Amr Awadallah earlier this year, is "by students, for students," said Rachel Polish, VivaSmart.com's marketing leader.

Originally started as a senior project, VivaSmart.com became an immediate success at Stanford and quickly spread to other campuses.

Sept. 8 marked VivaSmart.com's official launch at the University. "Michigan offers us a very wired campus," said Polish, who added that as of Monday, the University was the company's No. 1 campus with more than 1,000 students using the service.

With a textbook price comparison between more than 16 locations, including a Used Book Marketplace as well as online vendors and traditional bookstores, VivaSmart.com lets the students decide. "One book vendor is not always the cheapest," Polish said, adding, "our goal is to save students money."

09-15-99