Customer Advisory Board's Book Descriptions Feedback

We recently asked our Customer Advisory Board - made up of almost 1,000 used and new buyers, collectors, specialists, librarians and students - about book descriptions. Read on to find out whether your book descriptions are helping or hurting your sales.

Results

• These buyers said the following claims similar to the following will have no or a negative influence on their purchase decision:
  • More than 3 million customers served.
  • Selling online since 1996.
  • Buy with confidence.
  • Few in stock - order soon.
  • Ships within 24 hours with Media Mail.
  • A portion of your sale will be donated to charity.
• These buyers said that the following claims will make them more likely to buy, but they would prefer to see them in an area other than the search results (such as your Shipping Terms or Terms of Sale):
  • Delivery confirmation provided.
  • Free USPS tracking provided.
  • We send the best copy available.
  • We ship within 24 hours.
  • Returns are 100% guaranteed.
• More than 80% said they like to see seller ratings on marketplaces, and the majority of these said these ratings influence their decision on who to buy from.
• The majority of these buyers said they tend to distrust sellers who make claims about charitable donations or their customer serice quality.

Customer Support Tip: Improving Findability

Adding your books into your inventory management system and uploading is only the beginning of making sure buyers find your books. Are you taking advantage of all the ways to make sure your books are found more often by more buyers?

• Are you using distinct fields for your bibliographic details? Condition, Publisher Year, Publisher Info, Illustrator, Binding, Signature and Keywords should all be in separate fields.
• Include ISBNs in their own field.
• Add keywords. Noting a book's subject can help it be found more often. You might even try adding main characters' names in some cases.
• Use catalogs, but don't use too many; we recommend no more than 40. Catalogs allow buyers to browse your listings, but if you have too many catalogs, they won't bother reading through the long list to browse through them.
• Categorize your listings. Catalogs are displayed on your storefront and are unique to your store, but Categories combine all booksellers' listings into the Browse on our homepage.

Once your books are found, they need to stand out from others in the search results. Here are some tips on making them more attractive to potential buyers.

• Upload photos! Buyers like to see what they're buying, plus pictures increase trust with buyers and reduce returns.
• The Description for each listing should be detailed. Expand on your condition rating, signature details and binding, and make sure to note any defects.
• Include a short summary of the book with your description, or in a separate synopsis field. Summaries are especially helpful when buyers are browsing and aren't sure which book they want.
• Browse through your own listings to check for errors. Is your condition accidentally appended to the title on a listing or two? Notice any typos?

Meet the Sales and Account Management Team

From Sue Connors, Director of Sales and Account Management

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many AbeBooks booksellers during my seven years here, and I understand very well that it’s critical for the AbeBooks team to be present in the marketplace and to discuss ideas, opportunities, and concerns directly. With that in mind, I’m very pleased to let you know that we’ve added two new members to our Sales and Account Management team: Maria Miller will be our Rare & Antiquarian Accounts Manager, and Marc Fournet is our new Business Development Manager. They join Jordan Gordon, Account Manager and me to help booksellers to succeed on our marketplace, and to continue to build out our unique selection of books.

We hope to see you at one of the many fairs and festivals we’ll be attending over the next year and, on behalf of the team, we invite you to contact any of us anytime with ideas or suggestions you may have. As always, I’m very happy to hear from you and welcome your feedback and ideas.

Maria Miller
Rare & Antiquarian Accounts Manager
Maria's focus, as is clear by her title, will be to help our rare and antiquarian booksellers by listening to their needs and representing their interests here at AbeBooks – from product development to customer service needs. Feel free to contact Maria at (250) 412-3318 or e-mail her at mmiller@abebooks.com.

Marc Fournet
Business Development Manager
Marc will be working with our many textbook, professional, and academic booksellers to help them prepare and optimize their tools and inventory for their peak seasons, as well as building out this unique selection to ensure we have enough supply in this high volume category to keep students coming back to AbeBooks.com. Marc can be reached at any time at (250) 412-3319 or by e-mail: mfournet@abebooks.com.

Jordan Gordon
Account Manager
Jordan has been with AbeBooks for more than 6 years and shares his wealth of experience with our technologies and tools to help booksellers select the right tools to perform at their best on our web sites. You can always reach Jordan at (250) 412-3248 or jgordon@abebooks.com.