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Amazon launches second campus store
Amazon is to launch its first ever staffed customer order pickup locations at the campus of an American university.
The online retailer has worked with Purdue University in Indiana to launch the Purdue Student Store on Amazon.com, which went live this week.
Amazon will return a percentage of eligible sales through the Purdue Student Store to the university.
The store is described as a “co-branded experience where students can purchase lower-cost textbooks and other college essentials”, and will offer discounts of up to 30% on textbooks.
The Purdue store is the second time Amazon has launched a store with a university – the first was with the University of California, Davis, last year. There, it offered the university a 2% cut of sales.
Amazon will also offer campus pickup locations, with the first due to open early next year.
Through the Purdue Student Store on Amazon, students can purchase or rent new and used print textbooks, as well as buy and rent Kindle e-textbooks.
Paul Ryder, Amazon v.p. of media and student programs, said: “For years we’ve offered students low prices on everything from textbooks to electronics to dorm essentials on Amazon.com.
“We’re teaming up with Purdue to bring students staffed, on-campus pickup locations and benefits like Amazon’s Free One-Day Shipping on textbooks, making the college student store experience more affordable and convenient.”
The pickup locations will offer a “secure and convenient option for receiving packages from Amazon”, said Ryder.
Other benefits being offered include free one-day shipping on Purdue textbooks shipped to the West Lafayette campus area, which will be available to all students by early 2015.
Members of Amazon Student, which offers free two-day shipping for six months and then 50% off Amazon Prime, will also get free one-day shipping on thousands of other products.
Frank Dooley, interim vice president for undergraduate academic affairs at Purdue University, said: “We feel Amazon is right for Purdue for two reasons: Amazon doesn’t force students or instructors into any one format, offering print and digital, buying and renting, new and used.
“And the potential savings is about 30 percent a year on textbooks for our students.”
