Ypulse Research

This Ypulse Report takes a deep dive into the textbook marketplace. In a detailed analysis of decision-making patterns, purchase channels and attitudes towards the shopping experience, we see today’s college students as an informed and subsequently frustrated breed of typical Gen Y consumers. Anxiously awaiting a cost-effective revolutionary overhaul on par with the used book explosion (a habit of more than four out of five students), Millennials are slowly, but surely starting to consider the new wave of alternatives. In the physical realm, textbook rentals are a small but growing acquisition method, currently practiced by one in ten students with Chegg.com at the front of a small, but rapidly growing pack. As for the digital frontier, as we’ve made so clear on Ypulse, the writing is on the wall. Still, it bears repeating that the race is on and becoming increasingly heated with rumblings from the textbook publishers (Macmillan) and e-reader developers (Amazon, Apple) growing louder all the time.
(more…)