A website created by Ohio State graduates, CampusSwipe.com, attempts to remedy students’ needs with the swipe of a BuckID.
Tyler Ragor and Corey Perkins founded the site with the idea of aiding students that might be limited to where they can go buy a laundry bag, shower caddy or even a video game.
“We’re trying to deliver the products that students want at prices that students can afford,” Perkins said. “We don’t want to be the Amazon or the Wal-Mart. We kind of have this slogan ‘For students, by students.'”
Ragor said it was difficult to get things he needed as a college student, especially his freshman year, and to make his way around Columbus without a car.
Perkins said that most orders delivered to OSU are received in three to five days. Purchases are sent via UPS or the U.S. Postal Service, and standard shipping is free.
John Bieber, a fifth-year in chemical engineering, said he has experienced similar troubles at OSU.
“I think the more popular choice is to get a friend to drive you, but I could see using (CampusSwipe.com) if I had trouble, which I know a lot of people do,” Bieber said. “(The website) looks very convenient. I’m surprised by the amount of products they were able to have stocked.”
The company offers more than 600 different products including apparel, books, electronics, entertainment and health and fitness products that can be purchased using BuckID cash.
OSU’s meal plan currency blocks are not accepted by the website.
Students can buy a copy of Madden NFL 13 for Xbox 360 for $64 on sale, a 32GB Apple iPod Touch for $299, 10 bags of Pop Secret Snack Size Popcorn for $21 and a backpack for between $28 and $80 on the website.
The website was started in 2006 when the founders met through Phi Kappa Psi, their fraternity. Both said convincing the university of their business model so BuckIDs could be available for use on the site was not an easy task.
“It took some time and a lot of meetings with Ohio State to get them comfortable and on board,” Ragor said.
After operating the website during their time in school, Ragor and Perkins decided to put it on temporary hold after graduation to focus on their full-time jobs and paying student loans. They said once they had the means to go out to manufacturers and distributors, they went back to work on CampusSwipe.com as a full-time job.
“Neither Corey nor I are developers by any means. So we went through a lot of mistakes … As those years went on, we chipped away and were able to lower costs and hire a professional developer to create a better website,” Ragor said. “Little by little we finally got where we wanted to be.”
After returning full time to working with CampusSwipe.com, Perkins and Ragor extended the website’s community to Penn State University and the University of Texas.
“We decided we wanted to be able to crawl before we can walk. Our main focus is Ohio State, being alums, and hopefully Penn State and Texas will snowball off of Ohio State,” Perkins said.