ICBA: Your Retail Cooperative Savings

In June you received your 2010 ICBA Savings Report. This report helps you determine the value of the ICBA buying programs. We encourage you to review this report and to share this with your administrators, if you have not already done so.

Did you Know?

• ICBA stores realized a cumulative savings of 11.4%. However, when considering the vendors who do not report your purchases to us, ICBA stores’ savings are definitely greater than this amount.
• The average ICBA store saved over $42,900 utilizing the “standard” ICBA Programs.
• ICBA stores who committed to the CBS Apparel Programs on average saved an additional $26,407 on tees, fleece and hats.
• For the 28 ICBA members also utilizing the ICBA-PartnerShip Freight Program, they averaged an additional $83,700 in savings.
• The average ICBA member experienced a 1,946% return on their dues investment.
• One ICBA member realized a 16,400% return on their dues for 2010. If that was Wall Street, we could all retire.

Is your store achieving the maximum value possible? It is always smart business to gain the greatest benefit from your investment. And in the current economy it’s time to re-evaluate your commitment to ICBA programs. It’s up to you. The more you use the ICBA Buying Programs, the more value you will receive from your ICBA membership.

ICBA Membership Level	2010 Savings Top Performers (w/o Freight)	ICBA Dues	Return on Membership Investment
Under $1 Million	$7,418	$600	1,136%
$1 to $3.9 Million	$17,638	$1,200	1,370%
$4 to $6.9 Million	$111,064	$2,000	5,453%
$7 to $9.9 Million	$163,383	$2,600	6,184%
$10 to $19.9 Million	$40,559	$3,300	1,129%
$20 to $29.9 Million	$101,140	$3,300	2,965%
Over $30 million	$545,044	$3,300	16,416%

CBS Apparel Program – Average store savings $26,407

ICBA was the first group in our industry to bring you a successful committed buying model for basic collegiate apparel—the ICBA Commit-Buy-Sell Program (CBS). In 2010, 73 ICBA stores saved over $1.9 million using the CBS Apparel Programs. Total savings from CBS programs since 2006 is over $7.7 million. Are you maximizing your use of the CBS Apparel Program? Commitment forms for the 2012-2013 CBS Apparel Programs were emailed to your store on August 25 and are due back to ICBA on Friday, September 23.

ICBA Partnership Freight Programs – Average store savings $83,700

The ICBA Freight Program, managed through PartnerShip, is a different program from the NACS PartnerShip program that you may already be using.  The ICBA PartnerShip  program is designed to save time and money, and make a measurable impact on your bottom line. The ICBA Freight Program offers a full suite of individualized logistics management services that are available to all ICBA members, regardless of your current shipping volume. PartnerShip will act as your "Freight Headquarters," working with nationally-known carriers to provide you with unparalleled customer service and significant discounts off LTL carrier published rates.

ICBA Retail Conference, Business Encounter & PRIMEtime – Average store savings $1,650

ICBA saved member stores over $90,000 in education and travel expenses attending the ICBA 2011 Retail Conference in Las Vegas and ICBA members have already taken advantage of the available “freebie” registrations for ICBA 2012, February 6-10, in Fort Myers, Florida! With the continued success of PRIMEtime, ICBA was able to reduce the travel expenses for 104 apparel, supply and technology buyers from 58 different ICBA member stores to attend ICBA 2011 Retail Conference. Look for an announcement later this fall about the location of ICBA 2013 and plan to register during the late summer of 2012 for ICBA 2013 Retail Conference and take advantage of this great member benefit.

Thank you for choosing to be an ICBA owner, and congratulations on successfully utilizing ICBA programs and services to benefit your store, your school and your students.

Posted by Marty Duncan, ICBA Program Manager.

It’s the (Digital) Content, Stupid! (Or is it…)

“Up to 80% off with Kindle Textbook Rental” (Amazon.com)

“Deciding on a Book, and How to Read It” (New York Times)

“The Secondary Cost of Digital” (Inside Higher Ed)

“eBook report: Nook is up, iPad still catching up” (eCampus News)

“Amazon expected to sell 3 to 5 million tablets in Q4 2011” (ZDNet)

“Inkling Launches Version 2.0, Brings the Collective Wisdom of Every Student to the Textbook” (Sys-Con.com)

“Kno’s Textbooks Is Top Back-To-School iPad App With One Download Every 8 Seconds” (TechCrunch.com)

“Amazon Will Be Tablet Product Strategists’ New Frenemy” (Forbes)

“Hood College: Freshman orientation and an iPad” (eCampus News)

“Amazon Cloud Player – A New Way to Enjoy Your Music” (Amazon.com)

“Analysis: With HP tablet dead, who can challenge Apple?” (Reuters)

One thing is certain.  There is as much interest and intrigue as there is diversity of opinion and predictions for the future when it comes to digital content and devices that can read that content.  The title of this blog is obviously adapted from the phrase made popular by political strategist James Carville during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 run for President, but this topic has little to do with politics and everything to do with success.

Not too long ago, the focus was almost entirely upon the device.  The enTourage eDGe, the iPad, the Kindle, you name it.  By one count, literally hundreds of device manufacturers gearing up to serve your digital book needs.  Some predictions I read for this fall projected 40% of U.S. college students would return to campus with some type of a tablet.

Some companies, like Kno, didn’t even get to first base with the reader before doing a ‘corporate strategy 180’ and concentrating on software of content delivery instead.  Others either never made it to market, or like HP, showed up with a long awaited tablet only to announce that the prices would be slashed and they wouldn’t pursue this market after all.  Either corporate ADD is alive and well or the pace of change in the marketplace is increasing so fast that fulfillment can’t keep up with strategic planning.

The growth of the iPad in the context of higher education – in terms of device sales, but also when considering apps, new app development, and specifically educational uses – is irrefutable.  I get a kick out of one middle management executive who took pride in the fact just two years ago that he was still not yet tethered to a smart phone.  Today he carries an iPad 2 and brags about his business productivity apps.

“…Web queries for 'Kindle textbooks' are up 60 percent from this time last year. Same goes for 'Nook textbooks.' Searches for 'iPad textbooks' are up 40 percent. Whether or not students are buying e-textbooks this year, they seem to be shopping for them.” - Google

Enter the 800 pound gorilla (Amazon).   Although Amazon is as tight lipped as my Apple Rep around a rumored new product release, industry analysts are making huge predictions about the potential sales of an Amazon tablet, especially if it is sold as a loss leader at or below cost.  (Screech!)  That’s the sound of me slamming on the brakes.  Say what?  How can Amazon be successful if they don’t earn profits on the sale of a new device?  Refer back to my title.  It’s not all about the device.

If any corporate technology giant has a chance to challenge Apple for the tablet/digital content market, Amazon is the one.  Although the companies have very different corporate strategies, both have been successful with these approaches.  And yet, the back-to-school results for Kno and their software are astounding.  One download every 8 seconds?  Are you kidding me?  The #1 iPad education app and #2 grossing iPad app overall?  That’s impressive.  The open question is: “will the content sales follow?”

Although there are only a handful of titles right now, Inkling is a content model to watch carefully.  This involves an enriched, enhanced, and interactive digital version of textbook content.  In the study “Journey to Textbook Affordability: students use experiences of e-textbooks in five California State University campuses” (February, 2011), just 34% of the students reported overall satisfaction with an e-textbook. 

Could that be because the majority of e-textbooks are still dull PDF versions of the printed books that can’t be sold back, probably expire, and may not be value-priced when compared to their printed cousins?

“The Secondary Cost of Digital” is an example of how the marketplace and misperceptions of the average reader is evolving from “all e-books are created equal” to the truer perception that digital (textbook) content still has some growing up to do before it can replace the dead tree technology. 

People are catching on to the fact that you are not always “buying” an e-textbook.  You are typically paying to temporarily use the content license, or as Amazon.com calls it: a “Kindle Textbook Rental” (Kindle device-agnostic reader software + limited e-textbook license).  As Nicole Allen from Student PIRG puts it “add another layer to the publishers’ ability to rip students off”.

The value of renting traditional printed textbooks is being realized on almost every campus today in some fashion, while on a year ago there were only a few hundred schools that rented textbooks.  This is partly because of the value proposition is now being recognized by students, but also because the industry has found ways to make this new-ish model work.

So where is this all going to end up and when will the “tipping point” be reached where e-textbooks take over?  And will we all end up in the “the cloud” any time soon?  The answer depends upon who you talk to and at this point, it may still be too early to tell.  One crystal ball I looked into a few years ago told me that both the technology (reader, software, devices) and the content (digital or e-textbook) need to evolve before this happens. 

Although some progress has been made in both arenas, more still needs to happen before we will see anything like a perfect storm sweeping across our campuses.  All we can do is stay tuned and watch for the next big development.  With the pace of change we have seen recently, we may not have to wait long.

Written By Jeff Nelson, ICBA President

ICBA 2012 Segmenting and Scaling

SEGMENTING
At the ICBA 2011 Conference we tried something new in our Strategic Direction (SD) track. For part of one day SD attendees were segmented into groups based on their annual sales volume. We presented six custom programs built around identical content topics. Each of the six programs was designed for the specific group. Below are the six groups, the percentage of attendees that were in each group, and their rating of the Segmented Program based on this scale:

1 = Excellent

2 = Good

3 = Fair

4 = Poor

$30 to $50 million - 24% - 1.4

$20 to $30 million - 11% - 1.4

$15 to $20 million - 9% - 1.3

$10 t- $15 million - 26% - 1.9

$5 to $10 million - 22% - 1.7

$1 to $5 million - 9% - 2.0

When asked, What was the best thing about the Segmented Program, attendees gave us these comments:

"I liked being with other stores that could relate to our business size. Chance to meet others in similar situations."

"Nice to talk to folks with similar situations / concerns."

"A closer comparison of store size and sales makes the ideas more realistic. I think we were more comfortable sharing."

"Similar stores together."

"Meeting with folks from similar size stores and sharing successes."

"I think we can relate better to activities that are being performed in stores of like size."

SCALING

In evaluation of the Segmented Program we also asked attendees to complete this sentence; If it were up to me, one way I would improve the Segmented Store Program is by …  

"We were in the 20M to 30M segment, but I'd like to be in with the over 30M as well. We have goals to reach that mark, and learning from the ones already there would be very valuable."

"Small stores can learn from larger stores and vice versa."

"Including some other store sizes in the meeting, especially larger stores since they usually have funding to try new ideas sooner and we can learn from there experiences."

"Enlarge the groups a bit."

So the challenge going forward is to find a way to broadcast the take-aways from each group to all attendees in all of the groups. Then each store can find the best way to scale the value to meet their store's needs. We are working on that...

At ICBA 2012 we will be using segmentation for Strategic Direction and also in some other tracks with some changes. We will segment by system for some of the program. We will again segment by sales volume, but it may not be the same groupings as we did in 2011. Among other changes, for the session segmented by sales volume, attendees will be asked in advance to help create the agenda topics.

See you in Florida!

Posted by Stacy Waymire, ICBA Executive Director