Your Savings Reports

Return on your Membership

In challenging economic times, one word sums up what bookstores are seeking from their buying group affiliation: VALUE.

Every year you receive a detailed savings report to use for benchmarking, networking and decision making. ICBA stores using the benefits and programs to the best of their ability achieve savings that far exceed the cost of annual membership. We encourage stores to proactively share membership savings and benefits information with administrator and campus decision-makers to demonstrates how your store puts your school and students first.

On average, through the Buying Programs, ICBA stores saved $50,531 in 2009. That’s an average of 11.6% savings per store.

The ICBA Savings Report
The ICBA Savings Report helps you determine the value of ICBA buying programs. Although actual dollar amounts are important, we go beyond just dollar amounts to include the range of savings from each vendor, and we indicate if the vendor offers ICBA stores its best-in-industry pricing.

Our goal is to calculate your savings based on the understanding that best-purchasing practices are already in place by the buyers in your store. Although we could show greater savings by comparing ICBA prices to the vendor’s highest price, we do not feel this approach would be accurate.

The chart below shows the results from the 2009 ICBA Savings Report for the top performing stores in ICBA membership levels, and the return on their member dues.

ICBA Membership Level	Savings of Top Participating Stores	ICBA Dues	Return on Investment
Under $1 Million	$6,034	$600	906%
$1 to $3.9 Million	$92,795	$1,200	7,632%
$4 to $6.9 Million	$65,392	$2,000	3,170%
$7 to $9.9 Million	$138,045	$2,600	5,209%
$10 to $19.9 Million	$322,412	$3,300	9,670%
$20 to $29.9 Million	$141,978	$3,300	4,202%
Over $30 million	$447,305	$3,300	13,455%

Is your store achieving the maximum value possible? It is always smart business to gain the greatest benefit from your investment. And in the current economy it’s time to re-evaluate your commitment to ICBA programs. It’s up to you. The more you use the ICBA Buying Programs, the more value you will receive from your ICBA membership.
  
Commit-Buy-Sell Apparel Program 
In 2009, 74 ICBA stores saved over $1.1 million using the CBS Apparel Programs. Total savings from CBS programs since 2006 is over $3.0 million. Are you maximizing your use of CBS? ICBA was the first group in our industry to bring you a successful committed buying model for basic collegiate apparel—the ICBA Commit-Buy-Sell Program (CBS).

ICBA PartnerShip Freight Program
The ICBA Freight Program, managed through PartnerShip Select Services, offers a full suite of individualized logostics management services that are available to all ICBA members, regardless of your current shipping volume.  This is a different program from the existing NACS PartnerShip program that you may already be using.  The ICBA Freight Program is designed to save time and money, and make a measurable impact to your bottom line. In 2009, 19 ICBA member stores save $1,095,000 by switching their existing freight program to the ICBA PartnerShip Select freight program.

Free Professional Development & Travel to ICBA Conferences
As a benefit of your membership, ICBA pays education registration, airfare (up to $500) and ground transportation for a select number of primary buyers to attend the annual conference. For ICBA 2010 this special offer was given to apparel, technology and supply buyers. Stores taking advantage of their membership benefit saved more than $3,000 toward education and travel.