00 fee to list books. However Amazon will take a percentage of the sale after the book is sold. Our competitive advantage is that we offer competitive prices on books. Our website will be user friendly and easy to navigate. We will also have one person that will be in charge of answering customer emails. Emails will be responded within 24-hours of receiving it. Users can create an account to track transactions, email other users, books listed, and booked quested. .
Being able to startup and run the business at Eastern Washington will give us great advantage in savings for expenses. When sales are slow during the school year after a majority of students will already have the books they need we don't need to really stress the expenses. By not needing a big space to run our business or having any type of inventory that needs to be sold, we have the opportunity to focus on the customers and managing listings.
One of our threats would be that not all professors, colleges, and universities utilize the same textbook as other universities. Professors usually change their textbooks once a year when newer versions of a textbook come out. This will be a disadvantage for our business because students' textbooks can become obsolete. However, some allow the older books to be used as well as the new version as a way to help students keep costs low.
All four co-founders graduated from Eastern Washington University with business degrees. We also have a wide variety of skills in the business field. With our knowledge in various areas such as human resources, finance, and management, we will be able to run a successful business.
III. Industry Outlook Forecast and Trends.
The United States college student market is growing yet it is still an under-served niche market. As of Fall 2011, The US Census Bureau states that there is approximately 19.7 million projected students enrolled in the nation's colleges and universities.