Partners of the Collegiate Retail Alliance

Stores that use VisualRATEX are invited to become members of the Collegiate Retail Alliance (CRA) and take advantage of CRA’s strategic partnerships with leading industry suppliers.  These partnerships are designed to help member stores deliver superior customer value and improve their bottom line by accessing the industry’s best terms and conditions.

CRA partnerships enable stores to offer money-saving used textbooks, expand their course material options to eBooks, save on freight costs, and much more.  VisualRATEX seamlessly integrates these programs with the store’s business operations.

Current CRA Partnership Programs

CRA-Follett Millennium Partnership 

In addition to the industry’s best published terms and conditions for used textbooks, Follett offers its Millennium Partnership, a commitment to a comprehensive business relationship designed to leverage its multibillion-dollar business base in ways that directly benefit Millennium Partners.

CRA-Ingram General Book Prime-Source Partnership

Ingram is the largest general book distributor in the world, carrying over a million titles in stock efficiently accessible through its “best in class” delivery systems to stores and customers. The CRA-Ingram Prime-Source program offers CRA member stores a better business model by consolidating small orders on thousands of titles into a single source. The program also offers a highly competitive discount along with one of the industry’s best fill rates.

CRA-NACSCORP Book PrimeSource Partnership

NACSCORP offers CRA members a specialized selection of general books commonly used as course materials, as well as bargain books and print-on-demand titles. Order consolidation and high levels of systems integration make ordering, receiving, payment, and return processes more cost effective and can save stores up to 5%.

CRA-PartnerShip Freight Program

The PartnerShip Select Services program provides a “freight headquarters” for participating stores. PartnerShip works with a growing roster of national carriers with a reputation for quality and customer service to provide the industry’s best freight management solutions, dynamically allocating business to access best pricing. The combination of discounts and services can save CRA members up to 30% over traditional freight agreements.

CRA-CourseSmart Partnership

CourseSmart offers digital versions of thousands of textbooks from 12 different publishers, representing over one-third of all titles in demand in North America. Customers of participating CRA member stores can download eTextbooks to a laptop or access content online from any computer connected to the Internet.

CRA-CaféScribe Partnership

CaféScribe is the industry’s leading eBook marketplace with social networking capability. CaféScribe enables students using electronic course materials to take and share notes, highlight, cross-reference, sort text, and connect with others in virtual study groups who are using the same eBook. CaféScribe technology also enables the college store to independently digitize and sell its own custom materials.