Textbook rental company Neebo Inc. announced the start of BookSmart, a new money-saving program for students who want to include the cost of their textbooks and other required materials in their tuition and fees.
The BookSmart program will help students pay for all of their school costs up front and save money at the same time. According to its website, the company sells 6 million textbooks a year. It also designs and installs e-commerce sites for 2,500 stores a year, together with its parent company, Nebraska Book Company.
In the press release, Sean O’Brien, vice president of Neebo’s College Stores, said the BookSmart program will not only help students save money, but also help them with organization by making sure they have all their required textbooks on the first day of class.
Neebo said in a company press release that students will save an average of 50% on their textbooks by using its BookSmart service. Students get low prices based on Neebo’s innovative pricing model, which looks at the total cost of textbook rentals for all students and then charges the students based on his or her number of credit hours taken for that academic year.
The company already has a presence on college campuses, with more than 200 campus bookstores around the country. It has made a name for itself with its “Rent Every Textbook” program that allows students to save money by renting textbooks, using them and then returning them to Neebo. Their service allows students to avoid shipping costs both ways through pick-ups and returns available at any of its physical locations throughout the United States. Its new BookSmart program is designed to do more to save students money than its traditional rental service.
Neebo cited a recent NACS Foundation publication called “Student Watch” which calculated that students spent an average of $655 per year on required course materials in 2012. Some schools have been trying to find ways to help students save money on textbooks as the costs have risen. The University of Oklahoma, for instance, recently started its Textbook Alternatives Initiative to give students the option to purchase downloadable open-access textbooks and low cost digital textbooks to supplement or replace high-cost textbooks. Oklahoma President David Boren’s office claims the initiative has saved students 25% on their annual textbook costs.
Neebo’s BookSmart program is an innovation over its regular online and brick and mortar textbook rental service. This gives students a clear picture of the total higher education costs they will have to pay each year.
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