Buying & Selling Course Books Made Easy

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is the purchase price of the resource being sold, and as a seller, posting any number of items is free and any costs are optional. The previous points, paired with a website that reduces usage hurdles as well as a strong marketing strategy will encourage the community’s growth over time.

From a business standpoint, Gently Used will seek to turn a profit by: (1) selling ad space to advertising firms through affiliate networks (e.g. Google AdSense) once it reaches a sizeable volume of daily traffic, and (2) sellers will be able to increase the visibility and rank of their posted textbook listing in the search results by spending 1$ a month to gain 100 impressions.

For simplicity, the customer experience flow is depicted in Appendix A.

Situation Analysis

Market Description

Much like prescriptions drugs, textbooks are a type of product that most students cannot gauge for themselves if they actually need it or not. If a professor requires a textbook for a class, a student is obliged to purchase it in order to succeed.

However, over the past decade, textbook prices have risen by 30% in Canada (see Figure 1), which is 10% more than the overall consumer price index (Financial Post, 2015). According to the Globe and Mail (2011), in postsecondary education, the average Canadian student spends up to $1,000 on textbooks per year; budget conscious students are becoming more and more willing to acquire those textbooks through other means.

Figure 1. Price rise for textbooks over the past decade

One of the most popular means for students to purchase those textbooks is by seeking out second hand and gently used ones. Many venues are available that facilitate the search in the US, but, Amazon aside, there are only a few Canadian sites dedicated to renting and buying used course material (Financial Post, 2015).

It was found that depending on the price of the textbook, students might decide to buy it or not. Figure 2 shows that as the price of textbooks rises, the percentage of people buying the textbook falls.

Figure 2. Percentage of students purchasing vs. textbook price

Target Market

Gently Used will concentrate on attracting its target market based on different segment bases in order to best identify its customers’ profile, to best serve them, and to create superior customer value. The major segmentation variables of focus are: geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioural.

Regarding demographic perspective, our target market will be comprised of higher education students (University and CEGEP) who are at least 17 years of age, mostly representing the Millennials and the Gen Z generations, with (or without) a low to medium household income.

From the geographic standpoint, the targeted geographical region is Montreal and the Greater Montreal area, whose large population can be translated into more precise demands and more specific services and resources on learning materials. Due to a significant number of universities (6) and colleges (12) in the urban and suburban region, the metropolitan has the highest proportion of post-secondary student, approximately 250,000 of all major cities in North America (Wikipedia, 2017).

As the psychographic dimension divides customers into different segments based on social class, lifestyle and personality, our target is characterized by students in the lower and middle social class, who are ambitious, active, environmentally friendly, who wish to succeed in their studies, and are budget conscious as they spend more carefully and rethink the value of the services/products they are looking for as a result of the Great Recession in 2008.

According to the behavioural variable, students are occasion-based segmented as they practice a seasonal type of purchasing or online interaction, mostly at the beginning of a new semester (in August, January, and May/June). Our target market would seek benefits such as lower prices, speed, convenience (a one-stop shop), and opportunities to engage in cultural activities throughout the city and to connect with other students with similar interests and share opinions.

Review of Competition

Though Gently Used faces competition from several areas, two major direct competitors operating in Canada are Textbook Rental and Amazon (overview provided below). Moreover, Gently Used also faces competition from college and university based exchange platforms, some of which are program or department dependant while others are institution-wide.

Textbookrental.ca is one the largest online platforms in Canada for used and second hand books. Students may purchase or rent textbooks for a small fee and then return them at the end of their sessions. Textbookrental.ca also buys books from students and adds them to their inventory. Students are able to search for their textbooks by title, author, or ISBN, and order it. The book is shipped and recieved within 3-5 days. The student can then use it for the semester and mail it back to Textbooksrental.ca for free at the end. Through this system, students are able to save up to 75% of the original price per textbook.

Amazon is an online store company for Books, Music, Videos, and TV shows. Students are able to purchase books, used or new, from amazon at bargain prices and attractive shipping costs and offers. Amazon.ca now offers Amazon Student where they offer free two-day shipping for 6 months that can then be upgraded to an amazon prime membership for 50% of the regular price. At Amazon.com, a student can save up to 90% of the original cost on textbook rentals, used or new books. It also offers the possibility of exchanging old textbooks for a gift card that can be used to purchase other items on Amazon, which makes for a great incentive to continue searching and purchasing textbooks on Amazon.

External Analysis (SWOT)

Strengths

Opportunities

Centralized marketplace to find used books at affordable prices

Efficient filtering of book search results helps students easily find what they want

Students provide feedback on the course material

Customizable experience and highly relevant content

Lean business model

Privacy assurance (no personal information required)