What's New for Campus Stores this Fall

As back-to-school season begins, we’re proud to work with outstanding campuses across the US and Canada to help them meet their goals, including:

Expanding campus store offerings to delight the entire community
Delivering affordable course materials to help students excel
Exceeding expectations for customer service and partner support

This year, we’re thrilled to highlight four key initiatives that help schools inspire, enable, and celebrate the academic journey. Take a look!

Four Ways Follett is Helping Schools Drive Student and Faculty Engagement

1. No-Stress Access to Affordable Course Materials

Navigating the start of the new semester can be overwhelming, especially for new and first-generation students. To ease this transition, Follett works with hundreds of campuses nationwide to offer Affordable Access programs, providing students with their required course materials and textbooks at the lowest possible price.

Through Campus Wide or Course-by-Course Access, students don’t have to worry about shopping around for the best prices on books and supplies – instead, all their materials are delivered on or before the first day of classes, right in their Learning Management System, at a below market price. We love hearing the difference these convenient, affordable programs make for students: 98% of students say the program helped eliminate the stress of obtaining course materials and 94% felt the program helped them perform better on homework assignments. Overall, 97% of students agree that Follett Access helped them better prepare for class.

Congratulations to the 58 new Access programs launching in Fall 2024—including 19 trailblazing campus-wide Access programs!

2. Beauty and Dorm Essentials, Right from the Campus Store

In addition to course materials, today’s students look to their campus store to find convenience items and products to meet their everyday needs. According to a recent survey of college students by Talker Research, 56% of students plan to live in on-campus housing or nearby off-campus housing. To better serve these students living away from home, many for the first time, we’ve expanded our on-campus product offerings to include a new lineup of campus living essentials at select stores.

Our new Campus Living and Beauty collections make it easier and more convenient for students to purchase everyday dorm living essentials along with skincare and other beauty products throughout the school year, right on campus. “Our Campus Living and beauty assortments are thoughtfully curated specifically for Gen Z college students,” said Jeremy Bare, Follett Higher Education Chief Merchant. “We look forward to seeing student reactions on our campuses across the country.”

Beauty and Skincare Assortments: Students at more than 30 campuses around the country now have access to a selection of in-demand beauty essentials from popular brands like Maybelline, Essie, Revlon, and NYX. These product offerings include everything from beauty tools to mini travel kits, allowing students to purchase what they need, when they need it – without worrying about trips off-campus or shipping fees.

Campus Living Essentials: Our new Campus Living collection provides students at over 100 campus stores with affordable dorm necessities, including room organization tools, bedding, small furniture, and cleaning and laundry supplies. With prices starting under ten dollars, this collection helps students quickly and conveniently access essential items – without requiring multiple trips to off-campus stores or a deluge of online shopping.

Ikea x Chicago: We’re excited to announce a new pilot partnership with renowned furniture and lifestyle retailer Ikea on three Chicago-area campuses this fall! Students at University of Illinois Chicago, Loyola University, and University of Chicago can now visit their campus store to purchase a wide array of Ikea products, including bedding, furniture, and household items designed to make their dorm room feel like more like a home away from home. We’re proud to help to meet the needs of Gen Z consumers, while also improving the shopping experience on college campuses in key markets. Stay tuned for more on this exciting service!

3. Competitive Prices for Essential School Spirit Gear

Roughly half of students visit their campus store to find school apparel to showcase their school spirit. That’s why Follett is proud to offer a wide array of collegiate-licensed apparel, accessories, and supplies from more than 300 renowned brands and vendors, including Champion, Nike, and Stanley Drinkware. This year, we’re excited to expand our value-priced private brand with Campus United—adding new men’s and women’s styles at competitive prices—ensuring shopping at the campus store offers the quality and value students and the broader campus community expect and deserve.

4. A Research Driven Approach to Improving Our Technology

As the 2024-2025 school year gets underway, we’re excited to roll out new improvements to our faculty and student tools to make preparing for class more seamless.

We’re launching new changes to our course material adoption tool, designed to make submitting adoptions easier than ever, with more transparency into course material details. Faculty and department admins will have the option to adopt materials with this new experience starting in October—with more changes to come throughout 2025. Read about the research that informed these new changes here.
Additionally, this Fall, select stores will pilot an improved student experience that simplifies the process of finding and shopping for course materials. Our research shows that students value a clear list of course materials, deadlines, and payment options—in a consistent all-in-one online experience—with one click access to the materials they need. So, our new experience prioritizes clarity and transparency, in an intuitive interface. For a preview of these changes, watch a short video.

Thank you to the campus leaders, faculty, and students who continue to share valuable feedback about the campus store experience—your insights were critical to shaping these new initiatives. As always, we’re proud to help schools make a difference in their communities by: driving affordable access to course materials, expanding services and support, and broadening their offering so students can find everything they need to succeed.