Schoolbooks.ie was established to take the hassle out of buying schoolbooks and bring better value to parents.

We have done this very successfully over the last 19 years, becoming Ireland’s most popular schoolbooks solution, serving 143,435 customers last year.

However, we want to do more – we believe we can add more value for our customers.

In 2021 we conducted market research which confirmed that a significant portion of our customer base encouraged us to create alternative savings products.

The main takeaway from our market research was that our customers fell into two groups:

• Group A want help with regular saving of small amounts to build-up a lump sum
• Group B want help with getting a lump sum working harder for them

With this in mind, we have started by creating two initial savings products:

• A regular savings product (e.g. €10 per month)

Our regular savings product is designed to help parents to spread the cost of schoolbooks over the year, as an alternative to feeling under pressure in August and using the children’s allowance to help fund the back-to-school costs (which a huge number of our customers do every year).

• A lump sum savings product (e.g. €500)

Our lump sum savings product is designed for parents who have a lump sum and are looking for an opportunity to use these savings…to generate significant savings. Our first lump sum product is called the “Free Schoolbooks Scheme” as it results in free store credit that can be used to purchase any physical product from Schoolbooks.ie. As a result, parents can use their lump sums to eliminate the cost of schoolbooks and stationery each year.

The Free Schoolbooks Scheme is a lump sum savings scheme that we designed for parents who have lump sums (e.g. €500, €750 or €1,000) and want to use these funds to save money. It is best illustrated with an example:

Mary’s son Tom is going into second class and has just received his booklist. The total cost of schoolbooks and back to school stationery is €75. Mary joins our Free Schoolbooks Scheme by purchasing a Schoolbooks.ie Savings Certificate for €750. Mary immediately receives €75 of free store credit into her Schoolbooks.ie account. Mary then purchases Tom’s schoolbooks and stationery, which she then pays for with the €75 of free store credit. By doing do, Mary has eliminated the cost of Tom’s schoolbooks and stationery, by getting them for free.

Mary can remain in the Free Schoolbooks Scheme up to a maximum of 5 years. The following are the amounts of free store credit that Mary would receive, if she remained in the Free Schoolbooks Scheme for 5 years:

On the 5^th anniversary, Mary’s savings certificate would automatically be exchanged for a full cash refund.

If Mary wants to exchange a savings certificate for a full cash refund before 5 years has elapsed, she has two options:

Option 1: Mary provides us with 12 months’ notice by email

Mary can exchange a savings certificate for a full cash refund by providing us with 12 months’ notice by email to savings@schoolbooks.ie. 12 months after emailing us, Mary’s savings certificate will be exchanged in return for a full cash refund. Mary will not receive any further free store credit, in relation to a particular savings certificate, from the date she emails us to exchange that savings certificate for a full cash refund.

Option 2: Mary provides us with 14 days’ notice by email

Alternatively, if Mary wishes, she can exchange a savings certificate for a full cash refund by providing us with 14 days’ notice by email to savings@schoolbooks.ie. 14 days after emailing us, Mary’s savings certificate will be exchanged in return for a full cash refund. Mary will have to give back any free store credit she received in the previous 12 months: this will be deducted from the store credit in her Schoolbooks.ie account. Any shortfall will be deducted from her full cash refund. Mary will not receive any further free store credit, in relation to a particular savings certificate, from the date she emails us to exchange that savings certificate for a full cash refund.

In most cases, we will apply the refund to same payment method that was used to purchase the savings certificate (e.g. debit card, credit card, PayPal etc). We understand that cards expire, and we are set-up to accommodate new cards where necessary.

Simply go to Schoolbooks.ie/Savings, select the size of the savings certificate that you want to purchase and check-out. Immediately after checking out, you will see that your store credit has been increased by 10% of your savings certificate.

Schoolbooks.ie has the largest range of schoolbooks products in Ireland, with 4,500 different products.

Our aim is to be “fully stocked” in all products at all times.

However, this is extremely difficult as the main publishers (EdCo, Folens and CJ Fallon) are very often out of stock of their own products.

One solution to this…is for us to invest in holding even more stock on our shelves, all year round.

This takes funding. While we can fund this by rewarding our banks through paying them interest, we would much rather reward our customers by providing them with free schoolbooks and stationery.

This is the thinking behind our Free Schoolbooks Scheme: it’s a double win for customers:

• It enables us to hold even more stock all year round so we have a greater chance of having everything that you want in one place; and
• It rewards those customers who want participate in our savings scheme…by providing them with free store credit (that they can use to eliminate their cost of schoolbooks and stationery).

You face the same risk that you face when you purchase a gift card or gift certificate from any retailer or hotel group: your money may be lost in the event that Schoolbooks.ie becomes insolvent.

We consider this eventuality to be extremely unlikely given that:

• Our group has been operating successfully for 12 years
• Our group’s assets exceed our liabilities by over €2.2m. Please click for a copy of our abridged accounts for the year ending 31 Dec 2020.
• Since we acquired Schoolbooks.ie in 2012, we have grown the business from €2.6m of annual sales…to €13m in 2021. Last year we served 143,435 Irish customers.

Regular savings

You can see your store credit at any time by logging into your Schoolbooks.ie customer account.

Free Schoolbooks Scheme

There are currently 3 ways to keep track of the savings certificates that you have purchased:

1. In your Shopify account history
2. In your emails from Schoolbooks.ie
3. By emailing savings@schoolbooks.ie from the email address that your Schoolbooks.ie customer account is linked to.

Yes, you have two options when it comes to exchanging a savings certificate for a full refund before its 5^th anniversary:

Option 1: you provide us with 12 months’ notice by emailing  savings@schoolbooks.ie. In 12 months’ time you will receive a full cash refund for your savings certificate. You will not receive any further free store credit in relation to that particular savings certificate, from the day you email us to inform us that you are exchanging that savings certificate in return for a full cash refund.

Option 2: you provide us with 14 days’ notice by emailing savings@schoolbooks.ie. In 14 days’ time you will receive a full cash refund for your savings certificate. Any free store credit that you received in the previous 12 months will be deducted from your store credit account with Schoolbooks.ie. If there is a shortfall (e.g. because you have spent your free store credit), this will be deducted from your full cash refund. You will not receive any further free store credit in relation to that particular savings certificate, from the day you email us to inform us that you are exchanging that savings certificate in return for a full cash refund.

In most cases, we will apply the refund to same payment method that was used to purchase the savings certificate (e.g. debit card, credit card, PayPal etc). We understand that cards expire, and we are set-up to accommodate new cards where necessary.

You can use your store credit to purchase any physical product on Schoolbooks.ie. This includes books, book covering, stationery, schoolbags, lunch boxes etc and also includes delivery of these physical products.

The only products you can’t use your store credit to buy…are non-physical products such as Free Schoolbooks Scheme savings certificates, College Savings Plans (when they become available) and more store credit.

Absolutely not, your store credit never expires.

We’re frustrated by the lack of very good savings products for Irish families.

We believe we have something very attractive to offer and have started this journey into savings with two initial savings products: a regular savings product and the Free Schoolbooks Scheme.

We are led by our customers: if we see our customers taking-up our savings products…then we are going to invest further in improving and enhancing our savings offerings. [For example, this may include the launch of new savings products such as College Savings Plans or potentially seeing if we can arrange for our savings products to be guaranteed by insurance companies like Allianz, Aviva and AIG.]

Many of our customers do not have lump sums at the moment and have asked that we create a product that helps them to save-up to get one.

If this sounds like you, please feel free to try out our regular savings product – you can find more details on this by clicking here.

Some of the feedback we’ve received so far is that some grandparents are interested in joining the Free Schoolbooks Scheme as a way to help their children / grandchildren.

Absolutely not.

That’s not our style. Our goal is to become a trusted provider of very high-quality savings products for our customers. We’re not interested in charging fees, charges or having any other catches in our products. We want to keep our products as simple and transparent as possible and for them to be really useful tools for those customers of ours who wish to avail of them.

Our goal is to create really helpful savings products for those customers of Schoolbooks.ie who are looking for alternative ways to save money.

When designing our savings products, we have to consider many factors including whether to provide store credit upfront or in arrears, making the scheme as efficient as possible (i.e. using systems and automation rather than in-person meetings, emails or phone calls), sustainability, complexity, laws and regulations.

In addition, we have to protect our savings products from abuse. For example, if our Free Schoolbooks Scheme enabled someone to get free store credit on a Monday and then claim a full cash refund on Tuesday…and a small group of people repeatedly did this, then that would lead to us having to withdraw the Free Schoolbooks Scheme. We believe this would be a real shame for the 99% of our customers who would benefit from it and who have no interest in abusing it.

When balancing these different factors, our main solution is to provide savers with free store credit upfront (so they can spend it immediately) and to balance this with requiring savers to provide 12 months’ notice to claim their full cash refund.

However, we’re aware that there are circumstances that our customers may find themselves in, where they need their cash refund earlier than 12 months. We understand this and want to facilitate these customers. However, we have to also protect our Free Schoolbooks Scheme from abuse, for everyone’s benefit. With this in mind, customers are also able to receive a full cash refund within 14 days. Where customers avail of this option, they have to give back any free store credit that they have received in the 12-month period prior to the date of their email to request a full cash refund.