To help each member to achieve sustained success, The School Place provides, at group discounts, a number of products and services for retailers.

ER Connect Point-of-Sale System

ER Connect was developed collaboratively by Microsoft® partners and ER specifically for School Place® members as an optional fee-based benefit.  The benefits and features include:

Integrated with ER’s system

• View ER’s current on hand quantities in your system
• Send your orders to ER electronically (no re-keying)
• ER’s product data flows down to your system daily: new releases, discontinuations, price updates & more
• Product images preloaded in your system; images for new products automatically updated in your system
  

Optimal inventory management

• Proven min/max re-order points based on seasonal sales history
• Maximizes sales and minimizes inventory investment

Group Discount

• School Place members receive additional discount of approximately 25% off

Turnkey solution

• More than just a POS – a complete RMS
• Deal directly with Microsoft Certified Partners
• All hardware and software bundled: PC, monitor, cash drawer, scanner, receipt printer and more
• Training and Microsoft support included
• System loaded with functionality
• School Place members receive group discount
• Use existing hardware to further reduce cost
• Financing available with low monthly payments

Click here to learn more about the ER Connect system.

Click here to visit ER Connect authorized reseller System Solutions, LLC.

Click here to visit ER Connect authorized reseller J Bailey Company.

Retail Consulting Services

The School Place has partnered with hands-on retail expert Ted Hurlbut of Hurlbut & Associates to help our members succeed (optional fee-based benefit).

Multiple Areas of Expertise

• Creating memorable retail customer experiences
• Retail merchandising and buying
• Retail sales planning
• Retail inventory management
• Retail coaching and training

Industry-Specific Knowledge

• Ted Hurlbut has hands-on experience in the independent educational retail industry

Retail Fitness Check-up

• A retail review including:
• Cash Flow Analysis
• Inventory Management Analysis
• Merchandising Assortment Analysis
• Findings and suggestions are delivered via teleconference and written report
• School Place members receive a 10% member discount
• A relatively inexpensive way to tap into a wealth of retail knowledge !

Integrated Dealer Web Sites

Professionally designed, low-cost, custom website; choose from five (5) templates and multiple color schemes (optional fee-based benefit).

Integrated with www.SchoolPlace.com

• Reciprocal links between main site and your site
• Use School Place site as your e-commerce back-end
• Product categories link to School Place category landing pages
• The School Place handles credit card processing
• Content management (CMS) allows you to control certain areas of your site right through your browser !

World-class Order Fulfillment

• ER fulfills orders so you don’t have to
• ER uses specially designed efficient systems
• 24-hour shipping, 98% fill rate, 99.8% accuracy rate
• Rate shopping software used to minimize shipping expense
• Over 20,000 items in stock every day
• 100% of new items from top suppliers every year
• Free shipping at $69 to compete with on-line giants

Profit Sharing / Expense Sharing

• 3% of sales go to Search Engine Marketing
• 75% of profit margin goes to referring dealer, or local dealer if no referral exists (Advantage Level)
• Remainder used to pay for operating expenses including site maintenance and hosting
• Cookie placed on consumer’s computer to “lock in” your customers permanently

Click here to preview all the sample sites currently available.

Discount Local Mailing Lists

The School Place helps its members gather pertinent data in your local market.
Mailing and Email Lists

• School Place members receive a volume discount with Market Data Retrieval, the leading provider of school and teacher marketing data
• Rent lists of contacts for the specific counties in your area at reduced pricing
• Optional fee-based benefit

Census Data by Zip Code

• You provide The School Place with a list of zip codes or a desired radius from your home zip code
• The School Place provides you with census-based population estimates for various age ranges within those zip codes
• Optional free benefit available upon request