Amazon Kicks off Summer with Off-to-College Store Launch: A One-Stop Shop for College Students

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jun. 20, 2019– (NASDAQ:AMZN) – Amazon today unveils its Off-to-College store, the ultimate destination for your college shopping needs. Available on desktop and the Amazon App, students can browse a wide range of essentials with low prices for their dorm, classes and extracurricular activities in one place, without sacrificing valuable summer vacation time. New this year, Amazon enlisted the help of Ava Phillippe to share her own dorm room must-haves. Customers can shop Ava’s list or browse college influencer-curated style guides, including earthy artsy, casual throwback, modern minimal and eclectic chic.

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Amazon teamed up with Ava Phillippe to outfit her dorm room with the latest picks from Amazon Home, Devices and more. (Photo: Business Wire)

According to Mintel’s 2019 Back to School Shopping Report¹, college students are increasingly expected to use their own money to purchase items they need for college. The store will have deals every day and Prime Student members will enjoy exclusive perks for shopping the store. Shoppers can find the college store at amazon.com/offtocollege. With Amazon’s already low prices and savings on essentials throughout the summer, shoppers can get the products they need without breaking the bank. Plus, they can enjoy free shipping on millions of items, and Prime Student members can get their items delivered even faster with unlimited free One-Day and Same-Day Delivery.

“We want to support students and parents with everything they need to make the transition to campus life comfortable this year,” said Cem Sibay, VP of Amazon Prime. “The combination of Prime Student’s convenient shopping and entertainment benefits and our Off-to-College store’s incredible deals allows students and parents to stretch every dollar, while keeping all of the fun and excitement that comes with getting ready for college.”

Below are just a few of the deals and low prices you’ll find in the store this summer:

• Save up to 50% on select Levi’s styles.
• Save on everything you need to stay alert this school year, including illy Ready to Drink CAFFÈ and Lavazza Organic Tierra! Whole Bean Coffee Blend.
• Save on personal care essentials, including the Panasonic Compact Hair Dryer with nanoe Technology and the Panasonic Electric Shaver and Trimmer for Men.
• Save on furniture, including the Novogratz Alivia Accent Overstuffed Chair; Modway Promenade Modern Aluminum Bistro Chair with Bamboo Seat; Modway Aegis Mid-Century Modern Armchair; Modway Sensible Button Tufted Performance Velvet Upholstered Bench; and the Zinus Sleep Master Memory Foam 8-Inch Green Tea Mattresses.
• Save on small kitchen appliances, including the BLACK+DECKER Digital Microwave; Dash Clear View Extra Wide Toaster; Hamilton Beach Electric Kettle; and Hamilton Beach Countertop Convection & Rotisserie Convection Oven.
• Save on cleaning essentials, including the Maytag Speed Heat Steam Iron & Steamer; Eureka Airspeed Ultra-Lightweight Vacuum; Eureka PowerSpeed Lightweight Vacuum and Brawny Tear-A-Square Paper Towels.
• Save up to 20% on portable AC units from AmazonBasics.
• Save on Hamilton Beach TrueAir, Ultra Quiet Allergen Reducing Air Purifier.
• Exclusively for Prime members, save over 30% on select Sony 43” Ultra HD LED Smart TVs.
• Exclusively for Prime Members, save up to 30% on Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive Clothing, designed for and with people with disabilities, and 30% on women’s basics from Daily Ritual.

Curated Dorm Room Style Picks

Amazon has teamed up with second year college student, Ava Phillippe, to offer her dorm room must-haves, featuring her top picks from Amazon Home. Ava’s list was created to help inspire students to transform a drab dorm room or small space into a personalized oasis, without sacrificing comfort or value. In addition to browsing Ava Phillippe’s dorm room must-haves, students can browse Amazon’s new Dorm Styles feature for inspiration. Expertly curated by college lifestyle influencers, each dorm style guide – earthy artsy, casual throwback, modern minimal and eclectic chic – features suggestions on how to transform a cookie cutter dorm room into your home away from home. From the items you need, like bedding and computers, to the ones that will take your dorm living to the next level, like an Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, and a cozy desk chair, Amazon offers all you need to add a personal touch to any dorm room.

Exclusive Perks with Prime Student

Designed specifically for college students, Prime Student offers students the best of shopping and entertainment from Amazon to make campus life easy and fun. Nowhere else can students stream music and thousands of movies and TV shows, receive discounts on college essentials, and get fast, free shipping all in one place. Prime is evolving to be even faster with Prime Free One-Day Delivery now available on 10 million products coast to coast including the best shopping for college. That means that college students will find popular college items including bedding, furniture and school supplies – delivered the very next day or even faster. Students enrolled in two or four year colleges are eligible to sign up for Prime Student and after a six-month trial, Prime Student is half the cost of regular Prime at just $6.49 a month or $59 a year.

Here’s the cheat sheet on some of the top benefits students can enjoy with Prime Student:

• Get Everything Fast: It’s not easy for students to trek off campus for the things they need – and sometimes, they need it fast. Only Prime Student members get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery on more than 10 million items coast to coast, and Prime Free Same-Day Delivery on more than 3 million items in thousands of cities and towns across 44 major metropolitan areas, along with two-hour delivery with Prime Now in more than 30 major cities.
• Unlimited Entertainment: Members get instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows like Tom Clancy’sJack Ryanor Emmy-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as well as The Jonas Brothers’ documentary Chasing Happiness and Guava Island starring Donald Glover and Rihanna with Prime Video. Plus, get two million songs and thousands of stations and playlists ad-free included with Prime. For unlimited access to over 50 million songs students can try Amazon Music Unlimited for free for 30 days.
• Soundtrack for Studying: Students looking for upbeat music for studying can check out the Back to School playlist, only on Amazon Music. Simply ask, “Alexa, play the Back to School playlist” in the Amazon Music App for iOS or Android, and on all Alexa-enabled devices.”
• Movie Nights with New Friends: When they’re not hitting the books, students can watch all the movies and TV shows they love with Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Edition Smart TVs. Something’s always on with access to tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills and over 500,000 movies and TV episodes from all of your favorite apps such as Prime Video. The 24” Insignia Fire TV Edition Smart TV is the perfect size for any dorm, no matter how cozy.
• Game Time: Prime Student members can make their dorm everyone’s favorite game room with exclusive gaming benefits on Twitch. Members can enjoy in-game loot for some of the world’s most popular titles, a selection of free games and a Twitch channel subscription every month, and more.
• New Semester Wardrobe: Students can shop for the latest college styles and trends using Prime Wardrobe – an innovative service that lets you try before you buy the latest styles from Amazon. Simply try-on at home, decide what you like and only be charged for what you keep. Return unwanted items for free in the package provided.

Explore More on Amazon

College students can also take advantage of these features to make campus life a breeze this season:

• Textbooks: Students can purchase and rent textbooks on Amazon and save up to 85%, with the option to extend the rental period or purchase the book. Students who have textbooks they no longer need can sell them back for Amazon.com Gift Card value via Amazon’s Trade-In program. In addition to textbooks, students can trade in other eligible items for Amazon.com Gift Card value, including video games, Kindle devices, books, and more.
• Alexa Skill Blueprints: Customers can create and share their own personalized Alexa skills in minutes using a set of easy-to-use templates. With Alexa Skill Blueprints, customers can create custom ‘Flashcards’ or a ‘Quiz’ for their favorite subject by filling in the blanks. Once they’ve created their own study skills, they can ask Alexa for some personalized help at study time and even share their skills with their study group or other classmates.
• In The Moment Shopping: Students and parents can shop using the Amazon Appor with their voice on Alexa-enabled devices like Echo anytime. On the go? No problem. Students can add items to their shopping list by saying, “Alexa, add pencils to my shopping list” and then access their list at a store, farmers market or have Alexa send a reminder to their phone so they can purchase later on Amazon.
• New & Interesting Finds: Express yourself! Students can be the envy of all of their floormates with New & Interesting finds on Amazon, from meme-inspired school supplies to fresh, fun beauty products.
• Same-Day Pickup: College students can now easily pick up their sweet finds at a secure Amazon pickup location on or near campus. To find a pickup location visit www.amazon.com/ulp.

Great Finds with Even Lower Prices

Students browsing for all their college essentials can already shop with confidence, as Amazon offers the widest selection of top quality products with low, or the lowest prices. For even more steals, students can browse the following features:

• Bargain Finds: Students can find a wide selection of seasonally relevant products with low prices including clothing, jewelry, gifts and home decor.
• Amazon Warehouse: Students cango green AND save some green with deals on quality used products from Tablets, Laptops, TVs, Home & Kitchen, Sports & Outdoors and more.
• Amazon Renewed: Students can save and purchase like-new, refurbished and open-box products like computers, tablets, cameras, smartphones, home and kitchen appliances, headphones and more. Products have been inspected and tested by qualified suppliers and come with a minimum 90-day supplier warranty.

About Prime Student

Millions of members around the world enjoy the many benefits of Prime Student. Prime Student is a Prime membership designed for students and offers the best of shopping and entertainment from Amazon. Students of two- and four-year colleges can enjoy unlimited Free One-Day Shipping on 10 million items and Free Two-Day Shipping on more than 100 million items. Plus, members receive exclusive discounts on a wide selection of college essentials, access thousands of movies and TV shows with Prime Video, stream more than two million songs with Prime Music, enjoy a selection of free games and in-game loot with Twitch Prime. The cost of Prime Student is half the cost, or 50% off of regular Prime. Students can learn more at www.amazon.com/joinstudent and enjoy a six-month trial when they sign up for Prime Student.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

¹ Mintel. “Back to School Shopping–U.S.” Jan. 2019. Mintel. 9 Apr. 2019.