New Order in Search Results on AbeBooks.com

You may have already noticed a different look and feel to the AbeBooks.com search results...

We are currently testing a new feature that displays the search results with the lowest total book price including shipping first, rather than the current sort order which is based on the lowest book price only. 

The style of test we are using is called an A/B test, which means that 50% of our users will see the new price plus shipping sort order in the search results and the other 50% will see the usual search results.

If you are logged into your account and have specified a country, the shipping rates displayed will be calculated based on the rates from the bookseller's country to yours. Previously shipping rates displayed in the search results were just to the bookseller’s country.

We hope the results of the test will help us to make informed improvements to the website in the future which will help you to sell more books.

Comments

[phil james]

Layout - very good,and very helpful.

But

Truncating descriptions to four lines - a seriously retrograde and unhelpful step. And yes - I know you can click on the 'more' link, but a significant number of buyers won't.

[Mark Crocker / somerbooks]

Listing prices inc p&p is a pain for us as we use Abe to help price our books - I know we can use Advanced Search to get around this but it means a couple extra clicks (not much I know but it builds up over a day).

Same comment as previous poster re: truncating to four lines. The new layout also means we get less info on those four lines than we used to under the old layout.

[Lime Tree Books]

Please don't truncate the descriptions - these are our best method of standing out from the rash of "acceptable" copies offered by the megalisters.

[steve taylor]

Would it not be better for ABE to SORT OUT the shipping matrix system FIRST, so that the price can reflect the CORRECT shipping price for the packed weight of the book. I use a weight based system for my books and website, and it works very well. It just means books need to be weighed when they come in. A pain with large existing stocks but nothing to stop people doing this with newly aquired stock eventually they should have weights for all their stock, or give people the option to use a weight based shipping matrix.
I have been trying to get ABE to give us this option for 4 year but the keep sayings its not possible RUBBISH, I suppose ABE don't want to implement this as it is no good for multi listers who list hugh amounts of books they never have in stock. Is it not time ABE catered for actual book dealers and not just revenue streams.

[Ian Balchin]

It would be a good idea if the 'sort by' option was made sticky. I don't usually want to see the new default choice, it would be preferable for me if my choice stayed set as wanted. It would probably reduce the load on the server as well and there are more than enough 'zero sized object' errors these days.

I don't know about an A/B test, I just tried 6 different searches in a row, none came up with the new search option which I had previously assumed was being tried ad hoc according to the needs of the webmaster in getting if right.

Ian

[PAUL BROWN]

i VE NOTICED A LOT LESS ORDERS

[FARRINGDON BOOKS]

Speaking as a UK seller, are the lowest total prices, say if viewed from the USA or any other foreign countries, calculated on our surface postage rate or airmail?

[Sarah Marshall]

Thank you for all of your feedback which will be forwarded to our senior management and is greatly appreciated.

The A/B test means that 50% of users see the truncated descriptions and 50% of users see full descriptions. If you are part of the latter group, you will not see the truncated descriptions.

The shipping price that is visible has remained the same and corresponds to your Standard shipping rate to the buyer's country.

Thanks,

Sarah

[Lorna Cartledge]

Re proposed truncation of descriptions: as both a buyer and seller of books, I feel strongly that the detailed descriptions of books that warrant such descriptions are greatly appreciated. For buyers not sure which of several books they need/wish to buy, details of subject matter are especially valuable.