How does the bookstore set the retail (selling) price to the student?
While most “trade” books are sold to stores at a list price less a discount, most major publishers sell textbooks to college stores at a “net” cost. The bookstore then applies a standard “gross profit margin” to the cost of the book to arrive at the selling price. According to our most recent research, over 87% of college stores use a gross profit margin of 25% or less on textbooks. This is the same margin the bookstore uses on net price text. A margin of 20% is used on list priced text.
