Additional Partnership Opportunities

ICBA purses bid opportunities with vendors to provide exceptional pricing on high-volume, everyday commodity products. To achieve exceptional bid pricing, ICBA relies on the aggregated projected sales of participating stores to negotiate best pricing, often up to 30% below what is typically available in the marketplace.

The SOURCE Program is ICBA’s exclusive commitment-based model for purchasing T-shirts, fleece, polo shirts, performance wear, headwear, and blankets. Since its inception in 2014, 5.2 million garments have been purchased under this program. In 2018, The SOURCE expanded to include commodity school supply products, including notebooks and binders; 1.9 million paper products have been purchased. A selection team comprised of ICBA Members evaluates Vendor bids and product samples. Awarded bids are announced in December; commitments are placed through the end of March for the upcoming buying year.

Contact Vendor@ICBAinc.com for more details.

LEADING EDGE PROGRAMS

The Leading Edge (LE) Program is a webinar-based focus group of 10-15+ Member Store participants/volunteers from a dedicated and committed group of top participating ICBA Member Stores to provide feedback to encourage successful strategies for the marketplace. This process allows ICBA vetted and selected Vendors to develop a college store strategy or create test opportunities that can be extended to other stores upon proof of concept. As an innovation incubator, Leading Edge is ideal for product development, service providers, pop-up shops, pilot/test sites, prestige brands, sampling programs, & campus events.

Leading Edge Process

1. Review your concept with ICBA Leadership Team
2. Identify objectives in promoting the concept
   1. Revenue share with Store
   2. Minimal risk for test stores
   3. Logistics
   4. Marketing
   5. Test (pilot) stage
   6. Revenue share with ICBA
3. Create slide deck merging ICBA introduction with LE Vendor’s “pitch”
4. ICBA schedules and hosts the webinar (40-50 minutes)
   1. ICBA solicits 10-15+ stores from its Membership to participate in a Leading Edge webinar
   2. ICBA introduces concept
   3. Vendor representative makes pitch
   4. Feedback solicited during the webinar
5. ICBA solicits follow-up feedback from Member Store participants
   1. Stores interested in learning more or potentially moving into pilot phase are connected with LE Vendor
   2. ICBA is available to address inquiries and provide insights to the Vendor during the pilot stage up to 90 -120 days as needed
   3. ICBA is unable to guarantee participation in or placement of final concepts

Proof of Concept

Upon evaluation of a successful LE test concept, ICBA will work with Leading Edge Vendors to extend the opportunity to all ICBA Member Stores either through an Annual Vendor Partner (AVP) Program or at the annual ICBA Conference & PRIMEtime event. Your ICBA contact will review benefits and costs of these extensions as appropriate.

Contact DeniseWalsh@ICBAinc.com for more details.

WE WELCOME CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ALL OPPORTUNITIES

Please email Vendor@ICBAinc.com to get started TODAY!