The lesson plan at eFollett.com: higher web sales
The old college try is paying off in the form of more e-commerce sales for Follett Higher Education Group, which operates eFollett.com. For the 2008 fiscal year, Follett expects web sales to rise to $205 million, an increase of 17.8% from e-commerce sales of $174 million in fiscal 2007.
Follett, which began selling textbooks online in 1995 and introduced eFollett.com in 1999, now serves more than 1,000 campuses nationwide. In the last year, Follett has added more books to its online inventory and upgraded its e-commerce infrastructure. For instance, Follett is migrating its e-commerce platform to a new version of IBM WebSphere.
The company also added nearly 20,000 new products to its online inventory of more than 4.5 million individual SKUs. “EFollett.com continues to make site enhancements and improvements to site search functionality, web analytics and navigation,” says a company spokesman. “The biggest enhancement is the current migration to the most current version of IBM WebSphere to offer enhanced functionality and stability for the site.”
Follett is also working to expand the number of online courses and books it offers. Today users of eFollett.com now have access to about 40,000 courses and electronic books. “Follett is actively engaged with digital technology and content delivery options in the ebook and digital content marketplace, working closely with publishers and emerging technology content delivery trends,” the spokesman says.
In recent years Follett has also added more than 400 additional digital images to its e-commerce site and added more apparel and gift items. “We’ve made several enhancements to both customer experience and fulfillment,” the spokesman says. Follett is No. 68 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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