Set Your Sites on Visitor Needs

When college students are up at midnight, your campus store is closed. So where do they go when they want to order or seek information? Your store’s website is probably their first destination.

Whereas many college stores offer only bare-bones website info such as hours and a returns policy, the Dalhousie Bookstore, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, puts lots of information right on its site, easily located from the homepage menu bar. In addition to hours, store locations, and returns policies the site provides a detailed FAQ, a donation request form for local organizations, extensive info on shipping options, sizing charts for seven apparel vendors, a description of the store’s sustainability efforts and commitment, a list of local and alumni suppliers that the store works with, and a signup form for the store’s weekly email newsletter, Bookstore Buzz.

And that’s not all. The site links to a YouTube video showing—with annotated screen captures—step by step how students can find out what course materials are required for their classes and place an order. There are also pages with an online form for redeeming access codes, updates on used books and buyback, a course materials FAQ, and other help with textbooks. Faculty also get some love, with a web section featuring a course materials order form, ordering info, a chart listing publisher representatives, and details on the available digital options.

But e-commerce is still front and center, with a fairly extensive array of apparel, dorm wares, and other general merchandise on display.

The site’s clean and easy-to-navigate design was “created from scratch” by an agency, which was integrated by the store’s e-commerce/point-of-sale provider into its back-end proprietary system, according to Robert Moffat, manager, marketing and communications for ancillary services at Dalhousie. However, an in-house designer developed the “How to Find Your Textbooks” video, which has been viewed by 9,200-plus unique visitors so far this year.

The merchandising team handles updates to the products listed on the site, while the in-house designer, with help from others on the marketing and merchandise teams, takes care of keeping site content up to date. When they have time, the store staff analyzes site traffic and click-throughs to help improve the site and the merchandise selection.

“It’s not always easy given how busy everyone is and how thinly stretched we are, but we are trying to make this part of our regular planning process,” Moffatt said.

Like many campus stores, the Dal Bookstore makes use of product images provided by vendors. But there are also many images of Dal students sporting clothing items and the store is trying to obtain more.

“We’ve been successful in recruiting students to serve as models, although it’s taken a while to get to this point,” said Moffat. “The first major photo shoot featuring student models was done last spring. We partnered with the Dal Athletics department and their marketing team to recruit several student athletes.”

The shoot required considerable logistical planning and coordination, but the work paid off: The store now has a large inventory of quality images to use on the website as well as social media posts.

The store engaged one of the university’s official in-house photographers, Nick Pearce, to take the pictures. “Shoots included studio-type images of the student athletes modeling various outfits and, later on, lifestyle-type shots of them wearing the Dal-branded clothing in a gym and in various state of activity,” Moffatt explained. “For promoting our new partnership with lululemon, we organized a two-day shoot, this time recruiting volunteers from the bookstore’s own complement of student staff.”

However, the site is not a one-and-done effort. The store is planning improvements to the menus to help guide visitors and expects to add more product images. “We are also looking at integrating a new automated chatbot as part of a universitywide solution, which is still in the evaluation phase,” Moffatt said.

Watch for the November/December 2021 issue of The College Store magazine for profiles of websites from three other campus stores: Camosun College Bookstore, Victoria, BC, Canada; MU Campus Bookstore and University Images, Michigan Technological University, Houghton; and University Books & More, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.