Dear [bookseller],

Starting in March, we'll be testing a new feature in search results that will allow buyers to refine their search results to only New books. We're testing this by only showing it to booksellers first so that you can provide us with your feedback.

Why is Abebooks making this change?
We want to make it easier for buyers to find the books they’re searching for. Often a search on Abebooks returns thousands of results, and buyers are daunted by the sheer volume. A simple refinement into new and used books will help them to manage their choices. We'll be launching a Used books refinement later on, too.

Will you still show all the results together?
Yes. "New books only" will be a refinement that the buyer selects in the same way they might choose to refine by a geographical location, or for a first edition.

Why are you showing this to booksellers first?
At first, this test will be viewable only to Abebooks booksellers because we'd like to get your feedback before we expose the new feature to book buyers. We’ll make this easy for you by including a link to a survey at the top of every search results page. Please take this opportunity to provide us with your comments. We will consider revisions based on your feedback, and then we'll do another test with a percentage of buyers to track the effectiveness of the change.

How will I know when it’s ready to view?
As soon as the test launches, we'll post a message in the Announcements folder of the forums. If you do a search on Abebooks while you're signed on to your account, you'll see the survey message at the top of the search results pages. You’ll be able to see the refinement simply by doing a search for any title and then clicking [New Books Only] in the "Narrow Your Results" section on the right side of the results. (If there are no New copies available, the "New Books Only" refinement won't be listed, so we recommend trying out a few searches.)

How will Abebooks decide which books are New?
The "New Books Only" refinement works by searching booksellers' Condition fields for the terms "New" and "Brand New." If you currently include the condition of your books in your Description or Keywords fields, or if you use different terms to describe your new books, we recommend you update your listings. If you change the fields you currently use in your inventory management system, make sure to notify our Customer Support team before you send your first upload in the new format.

Using the Condition field rather than parsing descriptions for "New" will return much more accurate search results for buyers. We look forward to receiving your feedback, and improving search results to make your books easier for customers to find and buy.

Sincerely,

Your Abebooks Team