Hi All,

I thought it might be helpful to have a thread to highlight some of the concerns we've heard so far and how we are (and will be) addressing them going forward.

First, for anyone wondering how to find their favorite mystery section, or americana section, or do-it-yourself improvement books, use the drop-down selections on the left side of the listings pages in books. You'll find them here:



Second, there are some categories that used to exist but were not duplicated in the item specific selections sellers use to list their items. When we removed the category structure below fiction/nonfiction/audiobooks/etc., buyers could no longer get the level of granularity they used to have.

In general, we constantly try to have a balance between "not enough selections" and "too many selections" that overwhelm both the buyer and the seller. We want to make sure all subjects/genres are being utilized by both buyers and sellers, so we get concerned when we notice that few buyers are actually browsing in a particular area deep within the category structure. That said, we can devote an entire discussion thread specifically on what areas might now need fleshing out so we'll do that soon.

Third, it's worth noting again why we think this change improves buying and selling books on eBay:

* In all the testing we've done prior to launching Item Specifics and while they were active on the eBay site for the past 2 years (since last fall in books) buyers have found this tool easy to use, helpful in guiding them to items they want to buy, and most importantly improving the number of sales buyers make from booksellers on eBay. This is why we'll continue to launch these tools across eBay.com to help sellers continue to grow their sales.

* While having both item specifics and categories available at the same time helped buyers and sellers move to using item specifics, ultimately having both ways of finding items is confusing for buyers. Since the product finder is a more helpful tool to help buyers buy, we made it the primary way to find and browse within books. This change also helped sellers by removing the extra step sellers took to choose their subject/genre category, then choose their subject/genre item specific.

Fourth (and last but not least, for now) we'll be able to do more to help buyers find items using item specifics than were previously possible with the category structure. For example, while buyers find the drop-down selections more useful than the "matching categories" links, we are looking at different ways to present the product finder to combine the benefits of both tools. One test is currently running in the clothing category. Click here to see how that looks.

Also, we can now bring in search results from other parts of eBay that are outside the books category structure. For example, if you select "americana" in the collectible books drop-down, you'll find americana listings in the "books > antiquarian & collectible" category as well as the "antiques > books, manuscripts" category. This ability, combined with the ability to filter on other specifics such as printing year, format, etc. were not possible before.

Item specifics also allows us to help recommend items to buyers when they search for particular titles. Currently this is only available for items that were listed with pre-filled item information, but we're working on a solution that will work for any listing using item specifics and we can devote a whole thread to discussing that too.

Through all of this, we realize that this can be disruptive and frustrating if they require changes to buying and/or selling. We do appreciate the feedback you've given so far and hope we can use that feedback to continue to improve buying and selling books on eBay.

Please feel free to discuss below any other implications of this change and we'll continue to monitor this thread & comment.

Best Regards,
eBay Books