February 5, 2015
Amazon gets accepted to a Big Ten school
Amazon is dipping its toes in the brick and mortar and ivy world. On Tuesday, the e-tail giant announced the grand opening of Amazon@Purdue, its first staffed customer order, pickup and drop-off location on the campus of the Big Ten school in Indiana.
Students at the school now have a convenient location to receive textbooks and other essentials for college life as well as a nearby means to return items. Amazon Student and Amazon Prime members on campus are eligible for free one-day pickup from a selection of over one million items.
"Our goal in working with Amazon has been to make books and other needed supplies more affordable for our students, as we have with tuition and room and board," said Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue, in a statement. "The opening of the Amazon@Purdue location adds convenience to the mix."
"Whether students are ordering textbooks, laptops, or mac and cheese, Amazon and Purdue are now providing a convenient and secure spot for them to pick up their stuff at hours that work with their schedules," said Paul Ryder, vice president of media and student programs at Amazon.
Amazon plans to open a second location on the Purdue campus this spring. The company is also working with the University of California, Davis and the University of Massachusetts Amherst on similar programs.
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Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
What do you think of the Amazon@Purdue program? Do you see the competition for space on college campuses becoming more intense as retailers from Amazon to Walmart compete in this market?
Poll
I see Amazon entering all kinds of terrestrial markets. Colleges are a good one—its bread-and-butter really. The company is rumored to be seeking RadioShack stores, and I would expect to look for some big box “hubs” later this year.
The interesting thing here is that stores aren’t always the boat anchors we thought they were. They add value.
The only sad thing about these large retailers coming to college campuses is, particularly in small towns, they’ll destroy the local businesses (so what else is new?) And the problem with that is, the character of the town gets damaged.
Brilliant plan worth trying. This establishes a strong relationship between students and Amazon that should pay off for Amazon over the long haul. Hook ’em early! (U of Texas next please.)
What a great way to integrate the already existing on-campus books, supplies and sundries purchase behavior with an Amazon delivery platform that is personalized to students’ class reading requirements and all wrapped up with minimum friction through product acquisition and consumption.
On top of that, Amazon will continue to be top-of-mind and part of these students’ lives as they go forth in the workplace and continue to spend.
Amazon is doing nothing less than elevating consumer expectations and thereby raising the service threshold to lock out more of the competition.
Competition on campus is good. Part of this battle is the quality/strength of the campus store. Where I am, Arizona, our University of Arizona’s campus store is rated number one in the country. We have many other schools touring the campus store for ideas. Helps being a retail education center, too.
I pity the parents and the kids that are funding school via loans. The Amazon site will be another reason to purchase stuff that they do not need. Debt goes up or parents pay up as the spending increases.
Amazon will always be on the hunt for selling-related space. If they show up at your church do not let them put a pick-up site there. Soon, you will have an Amazon drop box on your front porch.
Yes, the competition continues to increase. This is great news for students, and I believe even better news for society as a whole. The access to books helps everyone!
It has been a while but I can still remember the pain of paying hundreds of dollars for engineering text books in University. For students, the cost of books is enormous.
Text books that are part of a course should be free to the students and available electronically. Just the ability to search will improve the productivity of a student.
Good place to start, a controlled demographic where you know there is disposable income and also have easy access to logistics support. Good place to work out all of the kinks of a store-based supply chain and face-to-face customer service policy. Also this is the same target audience of the Amazon media and computing platform offerings from music to computing. Perfect place to hook them early so by the time they graduate they spell Amazon.
I think Amazon will put a hurting on the traditional book stores, which for the most part are much higher in price than Amazon would be. The kids will love it as Amazon is part of their DNA, so a win-win is what will happen. I went to Ohio State, and if Amazon finds a spot on High Street it will do killer business for sure. Will the students have a tendency to overspend? For sure, and Amazon is counting on it.
My son goes to Davis—YEA! When we visited the campus this Fall we saw Amazon drop-off lockers. Smart to build loyalty with current and future users.
The college care package just got easier and cheaper.
The parents are anxious, the kids miss home and there’s Amazon with their scheduling system, perhaps even modified for the college calendar as in: the midterm care package, the finals care package, the weekly care package. Filled with the local foods they miss—perhaps home town merchants will see a boost.
For e-commerce to offer competitive rates the pick-up depot is the future. First it shortens the order cycle time and reduces the delivery cost. Delivery time can be as short as three hours which seems to be the new customer service objective. Amazon is on track with this new program. Note Amazon is rumored to be taking over many of the RadioShack locations for just this purpose. The larger colleges and universities will have pick-up depots within the next five years for the largest e-commerce enterprises.
Methinks Amazon should ready and aim before firing off so many rounds!
Such a great idea! Captive market with an unending supply of employees and customers and even better, no need to worry that your roommate stole your order!
Smart move on Amazon’s part. Online retailing appeals to this demographic and am betting this will create some real competition for bookstores and other things college students need. While I understand the ramifications this could have on local feel and character, that shift has already been underway for some time in other areas of the marketplace and college campuses will be no different.
I think it’s a great test. Store as fulfillment center. Could be a guidepost for a lot of retailers, especially the ones selling commodities and especially for students—most of whom can’t get a package delivered very easily (think dorm or apartment) or don’t want it delivered for security reasons.
Some day soon, you just might see a lot of these (http://www.penguinpickup.com) ideas brought to life, and not only for students…for the rest of us “too-busy” folks.
Definitely a great loyalty move. Picking up packages when you have a hectic school schedule is difficult, but by working around student schedules, Amazon is redefining convenience and gaining customers for life.
Using these funds to secure a leverage stock position within a worldwide distribution company might see more results for market awareness and acceptance. I see this market plan as being out of touch with what students are more and more inclined to use, as in electronic text books and the sites they get them from.
There are many institutions and instructors clinging to the good old paper book mostly for revenue resource reasons, but this will change as the need to reduce education costs increase. The fact that any institution would be willing to allow competition against the school book store is reason for inquiry as to their future plans for providing text to the staff and students. Is there a plan for an environmentally friendly means to meet the needs for text books? Is something like “books24x7.com” working it’s way into the school budget? Or did this already start to happen and nobody told us? I guess we will see somewhere in the not too distant future.
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I see Amazon entering all kinds of terrestrial markets. Colleges are a good one—its bread-and-butter really. The company is rumored to be seeking RadioShack stores, and I would expect to look for some big box “hubs” later this year.
The interesting thing here is that stores aren’t always the boat anchors we thought they were. They add value.
The only sad thing about these large retailers coming to college campuses is, particularly in small towns, they’ll destroy the local businesses (so what else is new?) And the problem with that is, the character of the town gets damaged.
Brilliant plan worth trying. This establishes a strong relationship between students and Amazon that should pay off for Amazon over the long haul. Hook ’em early! (U of Texas next please.)
What a great way to integrate the already existing on-campus books, supplies and sundries purchase behavior with an Amazon delivery platform that is personalized to students’ class reading requirements and all wrapped up with minimum friction through product acquisition and consumption.
On top of that, Amazon will continue to be top-of-mind and part of these students’ lives as they go forth in the workplace and continue to spend.
Amazon is doing nothing less than elevating consumer expectations and thereby raising the service threshold to lock out more of the competition.
Competition on campus is good. Part of this battle is the quality/strength of the campus store. Where I am, Arizona, our University of Arizona’s campus store is rated number one in the country. We have many other schools touring the campus store for ideas. Helps being a retail education center, too.
I pity the parents and the kids that are funding school via loans. The Amazon site will be another reason to purchase stuff that they do not need. Debt goes up or parents pay up as the spending increases.
Amazon will always be on the hunt for selling-related space. If they show up at your church do not let them put a pick-up site there. Soon, you will have an Amazon drop box on your front porch.
Yes, the competition continues to increase. This is great news for students, and I believe even better news for society as a whole. The access to books helps everyone!
It has been a while but I can still remember the pain of paying hundreds of dollars for engineering text books in University. For students, the cost of books is enormous.
Text books that are part of a course should be free to the students and available electronically. Just the ability to search will improve the productivity of a student.
Good place to start, a controlled demographic where you know there is disposable income and also have easy access to logistics support. Good place to work out all of the kinks of a store-based supply chain and face-to-face customer service policy. Also this is the same target audience of the Amazon media and computing platform offerings from music to computing. Perfect place to hook them early so by the time they graduate they spell Amazon.
I think Amazon will put a hurting on the traditional book stores, which for the most part are much higher in price than Amazon would be. The kids will love it as Amazon is part of their DNA, so a win-win is what will happen. I went to Ohio State, and if Amazon finds a spot on High Street it will do killer business for sure. Will the students have a tendency to overspend? For sure, and Amazon is counting on it.
My son goes to Davis—YEA! When we visited the campus this Fall we saw Amazon drop-off lockers. Smart to build loyalty with current and future users.
The college care package just got easier and cheaper.
The parents are anxious, the kids miss home and there’s Amazon with their scheduling system, perhaps even modified for the college calendar as in: the midterm care package, the finals care package, the weekly care package. Filled with the local foods they miss—perhaps home town merchants will see a boost.
For e-commerce to offer competitive rates the pick-up depot is the future. First it shortens the order cycle time and reduces the delivery cost. Delivery time can be as short as three hours which seems to be the new customer service objective. Amazon is on track with this new program. Note Amazon is rumored to be taking over many of the RadioShack locations for just this purpose. The larger colleges and universities will have pick-up depots within the next five years for the largest e-commerce enterprises.
Methinks Amazon should ready and aim before firing off so many rounds!
Such a great idea! Captive market with an unending supply of employees and customers and even better, no need to worry that your roommate stole your order!
Smart move on Amazon’s part. Online retailing appeals to this demographic and am betting this will create some real competition for bookstores and other things college students need. While I understand the ramifications this could have on local feel and character, that shift has already been underway for some time in other areas of the marketplace and college campuses will be no different.
I think it’s a great test. Store as fulfillment center. Could be a guidepost for a lot of retailers, especially the ones selling commodities and especially for students—most of whom can’t get a package delivered very easily (think dorm or apartment) or don’t want it delivered for security reasons.
Some day soon, you just might see a lot of these (http://www.penguinpickup.com) ideas brought to life, and not only for students…for the rest of us “too-busy” folks.
Definitely a great loyalty move. Picking up packages when you have a hectic school schedule is difficult, but by working around student schedules, Amazon is redefining convenience and gaining customers for life.
Using these funds to secure a leverage stock position within a worldwide distribution company might see more results for market awareness and acceptance. I see this market plan as being out of touch with what students are more and more inclined to use, as in electronic text books and the sites they get them from.
There are many institutions and instructors clinging to the good old paper book mostly for revenue resource reasons, but this will change as the need to reduce education costs increase. The fact that any institution would be willing to allow competition against the school book store is reason for inquiry as to their future plans for providing text to the staff and students. Is there a plan for an environmentally friendly means to meet the needs for text books? Is something like “books24x7.com” working it’s way into the school budget? Or did this already start to happen and nobody told us? I guess we will see somewhere in the not too distant future.