New Bookseller Storefronts - FAQ

Q. - Who gets a new Storefront?

All AbeBooks booksellers are automatically assigned a default Storefont.

Q. - In what ways can my Storefront be customized?

Colors: You can choose from three color schemes.

Images: You can choose from a set of AbeBooks supplied images, or you have the ability to upload your own image in .gif or .jpg format. The maximum image size is 4 mb. Dimensions are up to you but if the image width exceeds 250 pixels, we will scale the image down to fit. 

About Your Bookstore: You have the ability to uniquely describe your bookstore and your specialties.

Catalogs: All of your catalogs will be displayed on your Storefront and you also have the ability to feature two catalogs of your choice.

Q. - Why has the link to my personal web site been removed?

With the launch of the new Storefronts, a business decision was made to discontinue linking to external web sites, with the exception of Chrislands hosted sites. The url of your web site is still available to buyers at the bottom of your Storefront.

Q. - Why was my email address removed and replaced with a link to Ask the Bookseller a Question?

This change was made to protect the privacy of all booksellers, as well as to prevent spammers from being able to scrape the site for email addresses. Your email address is still provided to the buyer through their Order Confirmation and Order Processed emails.

Q. - Can buyers search my inventory from my Storefront?

Yes! Your Storefront includes a Search function that will allow buyers to search your inventory exclusively. Buyers can also browse your inventory through your catalogs or through categories.

Q. - What are categories?

Categories are the topic headings buyers see when using the Browse feature on our web site. If they access categories via the Browse link in the red banner at the top of every AbeBooks page, they will be browsing the inventory of all booksellers. If they access the browse categories via your Storefront, they will be browsing your inventory exclusively.

Another, extremely important benefit to having categories displayed on your Storefront is that each category link is a portal through which external search engines, such as Google, can access and index individual book details pages for each of your listings. This means that searches through those engines will return your books.

Q. - How are categories assigned?

Categories are assigned to each listing in three ways.

You can assign your own categories to your listings. Each listing can be associated with up to ten categories. If you assign your own categories to a listing, AbeBooks will do no further matching.

If you do not supply your own categories, AbeBooks will assign categories to your listings based on your keywords and/or on ISBN information. However, keywords and ISBN matching will not guarantee that a listing will be categorized. If you have a listing with either an ISBN and/or keywords but that is not automatically categorized, you will need to categorize the listing yourself.

No category will be assigned to any listing that: 

• has no ISBN or for which ISBN matching is disabled, and

• for which you have assigned no keywords, and

• for which you have not assigned a category yourself.

Q. - How do I assign my own categories?

HomeBase 3.0 has a category field built-in. If you use a custom conversion, you can include a category field.

If adding categories through your inventory management system is not possible, you can add categories via the Online Inventory Manager, accessible through your AbeBooks account.

Q. - What should I do if AbeBooks assigns categories to my listings that are incorrect?

The best way to correct this situation is to assign your own categories to your listings. A bookseller supplied category will overwrite and replace all categories automatically assigned by keyword or ISBN.

You can also remove category associations via the Online Listings Manager but if you do so, you will lose out on the Search Engine Optimization described above. And the effort involved in removing categories is the same, or more, than assigning your own categories.

If you wish to remove categories in bulk, you must first add your own category to those listings. Once they have a vendor supplied category in common, any automatically assigned categories can be removed in bulk.

If you wish to remove categories without first adding your own, then they must be removed one listing at a time.

Q. - If I add categories through the Online Inventory Manager, will they be removed when I purge and reload?

No. A purge and reload will have no impact on the categories that you have added to your listings through the Online Listings Manager.

However, if you remove category associations through the online faciility, those automatic category assignments will be re-added with a purge and reload.

We strongly encourage all booksellers to categorize their listings, both to maximize the benefit of Search Engine Optimization, as well as to prevent the extra, unnecessary work required to continually remove category associations.

Categorizing Listings Online