Walsh University
is an independent,
coeducational Catholic
liberal arts and sciences
institution. It is dedicated
to educating its students
to become leaders in
service to others through
a values-based education
with an international
perspective. There is one
main campus and four
off-campus locations.
Enrollment
2,000
Location
north Canton, Ohio
MBS Direct Client
since 2004
ELIMINATING COSTS & HASSLES
OF OFF-CAMPUS DISTRIBUTION
Walsh University - North Canton, Ohio
"Because I had to take care of all textbook operations for each campus myself, from acquisition to delivery, I was putting in more time at our off-campus locations than at my own store. Direct has taken all that off my plate."
Dawn Mealey Bookstore Manager, Walsh University
Client Challenge
The Barnes & Noble campus bookstore on Walsh University’s main campus was losing a lot of money servicing the school’s distance learning population. Bookstore manager Dawn Mealey handled textbook operations for the main store and all four off-campus locations—an exceedingly time consuming and expensive task. As the only manager overseeing a small staff, Dawn had multitasking down to an art form. In addition to managing day-to-day operations in the main store, she collected faculty booklists from every campus, ordered the required books and materials, and personally handled all aspects of distribution from inventory to delivery. She not only had to pay someone to staff her absence while she made distribution rounds, making those rounds incurred large commuting costs in and of itself. Once materials were delivered to her in bulk, Dawn had to rent a truck, hire a driver to assist her and pay for gas. She then hand delivered books to each of the four off-campus locations. Delivery alone was an entire day’s work for each site, which began new terms—and required new books—every 8 weeks. On top of all the operational expense, these off-site bookrooms were not supervised. Dawn needed a solution for her store that would alleviate the large cash fl ow problem and allow her more time to focus on issues such as loss prevention.
Solution
In 2004, MBS Direct provided Walsh University’s bookstore with an effective online partnership and assumed responsibility for all off-campus textbook operations. Direct created a comprehensive Virtual Bookstore for the school with a unique online store and URL. Beyond an attractive appearance, website functionality is tailored to the school’s existing course organization, resulting in clear, intuitive usage. Off-campus students place their own textbook orders via the Internet now, 24-hours a day, or use traditional methods such as phone and mail order. Not only has Direct saved the Barnes & Noble manager countless hours of leg-work, adopting the Virtual Bookstore has dramatically improved the store’s cash fl ow statement by reducing operational expenditures such as payroll and overhead. Dawn is able to focus solely on managing her store now, and has had terrifi c response from distance learning students who love the increased customer service and money-saving used books that MBS Direct provides.
Walsh College