College students getting ready to buy textbooks for next semester are getting some strange advice from Chegg.com: don’t.
Chegg.com has turned itself into a major competitor in the textbook market with the simple phrase, ‘don’t buy it.’
“We want to be number one in customer service,” said Aayush Phumbhra, vice president and co-founder of Chegg.com with Osman Rashid. “But mainly we want to save college students money, and so far we have saved them more than $65 million.”
Phumbhra was an entrepreneur in his native India before relocating to the U.S. Chegg started from an Iowa State University Web site similar to Craigslist.
“Textbooks were the most utilized product on that first Web site,” said Phumbhra, who was a graduate student at the time. “It was proven on a few campuses, and it’s been smooth sailing since.”
Angela Pontarolo is the public relations manager for Chegg.com.
“I completely identify with a student’s need to save money,” said Pontarolo, who graduated with a bachelor’s degre in public relations and a minor in Italian studies from Gonzaga in 2007. “As tuition continues to rise faster than inflation, it’s paramount to give students a more viable option to save them money. Textbook rental is the perfect solution.”
It works like this: a college student or — parent — goes to Chegg.com and enters the ISBN numbers or titles and authors of the books he or she needs, the length of time the book is needed, pay for the books, and within four to seven days the student receives his or her book in the trademark Chegg.com orange box.
“An econ book from Gonzaga lists for $182,” Phumbhra said. “And you can rent it for a semester for $45 from Chegg.com.”
After a student finishes with the rented textbook, he or she simply packages the book in the same box they received it in, print the pre-paid shipping label from the Web site, and send it back. There’s also an option to keep the book by paying the difference of the rental charge and the purchase price.
While renting and returning textbooks is more environmentally friendly than buying and keeping them, Chegg.com has gone even further in the pursuit of protecting trees.
“We started planting trees two years ago when we started renting books,” Phumbhra said. “So far we’ve been able to plant more than 3,000 acres of forest.”
That’s because for each book rented, sold or bought on Chegg.com a tree is planted through their partnership with American Forests’ Global ReLeaf campaign.
“Right now students can select one of three regions, three different projects, where the trees get planted after you order a book,” said Phumbhra.
Chegg.com recently launched its Chegg Champions program that pays students to spread the word about Chegg.com.
“Chegg Champions was something that we launched because we realized students are passionate about saving money,” Phumbhra said. “For every order you get, we pay you $5, and the person you refer gets a 5 percent discount.”
Paying college students to help themselves and their friends save money is just the sort of idea that Chegg.com pursues. The amount of money they have saved students and the number of trees planted is constantly updated on their Web site.
Employing Gonzaga alumni also strengthens Chegg.com’s mission of helping college students.
“Gonzaga’s Jesuit ideology has been instrumental in both my personal and professional life,” Pontarolo said. “I truly believe my college decision has led me to where I am today and I couldn’t imagine anything better.”
Chegg.com is reinventing the textbook industry while saving the environment and saving college students money so they no longer have to choose between their textbook fund and their cold beverage fund.
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