Smart Tools for Easier Buying: Leveraging Our Custom Website Tools
December 12, 2023
Are you using Book Depot’s website tools to their fullest capabilities? We’ve made the book buying process so much easier for our customers through the creation of custom tools to help them search for the books they want. Gone are the days of having to painstakingly type in authors one-by-one and juggling multiple keywords to uncover books in line with customers’ interests.
With our Custom List Creator, you set the criteria. This tool empowers you to tailor lists according to your specific needs and preferences. Save your customized lists for future use, set up templates to have them emailed to you, and choose both the day and frequency for receiving these lists. Doesn’t that sound like a time-saver?
Moreover, enhance your experience by applying advanced filters. Precision is at your fingertips as you refine results by quantity, concentrate on budget-friendly price points, identify in-stock arrival dates, specify preferred publishers, and eliminate redundancy by excluding previously viewed lists.
Curious about this tool’s secret hideout? After logging in, just click the person icon at the top, then navigate to My Lists. Click ‘Create,’ and voila! You can customize your list across various categories including:
Category
Publisher
Author
Format
Price & Quantity
Arrival Date
Demographic
Keywords
Exclude Lists
At Book Depot, we’re not just about offering an extensive book selection at great prices; we’re on a mission to make your shopping smarter, so you can maximize your resources. Say hello to efficiency with tools that put convenience at your fingertips.
Sidebar
Custom List Tool: Refine Your Custom Lists
March 3, 2019
When you are using the Custom List tool, the Arrival Date and Exclude Lists attributes can work hand-in-hand to help you refine your lists and are very valuable tools when you are looking for the latest product. Sure, you can scan our New Arrivals list every couple of days like many of our customers do, but with this new tool you can do so much more—you can set additional parameters around the newest products, filter out any features you don’t want, and even schedule your list so it is emailed to you at the frequency of your choosing.
Video Tutorial
Here are brief video tutorials to show you how to refine your custom lists:
Arrival Dates:
List Exclusions:
Step-by-Step Instructions
To demonstrate how to use the Arrival Date and Exclude Lists filters, let’s walk through an example.
START
For the purpose of this example, we will create a list of new biography and autobiography titles that can be regularly emailed at a desired frequency. To start, select Category, Arrival Date, and Exclude Lists from the list of attributes on the Start page. Click Next to move forward to the Category page.
CATEGORY
On the Category page, select Biography & Autobiography from the list of categories and then click Next to move ahead to Arrival Date page.
ARRIVAL DATE
On the Arrival Date page, you have the ability to select a date range for when new products have become available for sale. Your options include:
Anytime
1 Day
1 Week
2 Weeks
1 Month
2 Months
3 Months
If none of these options are the right fit for you, you can also select Other, which allows you to set your own date using the calendar. For this example, we will select 1 Week. This means that the list will only include new biography and autobiography titles that came into inventory within the past week. Once you have made the selection, click Next to move to the Exclude Lists page.
EXCLUDE LISTS
The Exclude Lists attribute is one more feature that gives you better control of our inventory and helps you manage the size of your lists. Since Book Depot can regularly receive returns from the same publisher and because we are sorting more product on a daily basis than ever before, there is a fair bit of title duplication over a period of time within our new arrivals. However, the Exclude Lists attribute gives you the option to prevent any titles from your previous lists from appearing on the current list you are creating. More specifically, you can exclude lists from the following tabs:
My Lists
Custom Lists
From Sales Rep
Templates
For each of these options, you can also exclude titles based on a set time span or date. Your date-related exclusion options are:
Weeks (#)
Months (#)
Years (#)
Calendar Date
Continuing our example, to ensure your list does not include any books that have appeared in your previous lists for the past month, you can check the Exclude box next to the lists and select Time Span – 1 Month. This will effectively trim down your list to the newest titles and remove any duplicate titles you have seen recently.
REPORT FIELDS
The Report Fields page allows you to select the information you would like to be included in your downloadable Excel spreadsheet list. We have preselected several for you, but you can alter these options to whatever you prefer. You can even include the cover image, but please note that if your list exceeds 1,000 titles, the images will not appear due to file size constraints. When you are satisfied with your selections, you can continue to the final step by clicking Next.
FINALIZE
On the Finalize page, you have the ability to take your list and template it, and then schedule an email so you are automatically notified at the frequency of your choosing. The first thing you will want to do is name your list. Next, click the checkbox beside Create as template. Once you check that box, a new menu of options will pop up that will allow you to choose how often and for how long your list is emailed to you.
Recurrence Pattern
The Recurrence Pattern is where you will select the regular frequency of the email—weekly, monthly, or yearly. For this example, if we give this list a weekly recurrence pattern, you can then select which day of the week you will receive the list (e.g. if Monday is selected, every Monday you will receive a list of newly-added biography and autobiography titles from the past week from Book Depot’s inventory).
Email Notification
The Email Notification section allows you to specify the email address(es) your list will be sent to as well as customize the email message itself. The default email address is the one that is associated with your account. However, if you would like to replace your default email address with a different one, you can do so by clicking the small “x” on the right-hand side of the blue button. You can also add additional email addresses if you would like others on your team to receive these regular lists. As for the messaging, we have a default subject line as well as a blank body paragraph that will populate once the email is sent, but you can change and/or add any other information you would like.
Create
Now that you have entered all of your preferences, you are ready to click the green Create button. By clicking Create, you have officially saved your template and scheduled your recurring email!
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about this tool or any other functions of our Custom List tool, please contact us!
Life is busy—there are more things we need to do in a day than there are hours available! We understand that for some people, looking at product is a necessity, and for others, it is an ever-eluding desire. You wish you could carve out an hour of your day (or week) to check out what’s new at Book Depot, but it becomes an afterthought in all of the hustle and bustle of your day-to-day schedule.
With Book Depot’s new Custom List tool, we have created a very easy way for you to make a custom shoppable list on our website that will save you time! This tutorial focuses on the final steps before you complete your list, where you have the ability to template and auto-schedule it so that reviewing Book Depot product is quicker and easier than ever. The goal of this tool is to give you more control over the flow of information and create helpful ways to fit our product lists into your schedule!
What exactly do we mean by template? If you think of it in terms of a word processing or design template, it is a structure that allows you to repeat a pattern using a predetermined set of guidelines. In terms of creating a Book Depot catalog template, you have the ability to save the filters you are interested in seeing (categories, publishers, bindings, etc.) and repeat that query as often you would like against our ever-changing inventory.
Video Tutorial
Here is a brief video tutorial to show you how to use this tool:
Step-by-Step Instructions
Let’s walk through a simple scenario to demonstrate how to use the tool. Say you only want to create a board book list. We will create a simple catalog by selecting format from our list of editable attributes, and then selecting board books from the full list of formats.
FINALIZE
Moving ahead to the Finalize page, you now have the ability to take your list and template it, and then schedule an email so you are automatically notified at the frequency of your choosing. The first thing you will want to do on the Finalize page is name your list (in this instance we will just call it “Board Book List”). Next, click the checkbox beside Create as template. Once you check that box, a new menu of options will pop up. This is the convenient Auto-Scheduling tool, which gives you the ability to have your list sent to you by email as often as you would like. Let’s break down each option.
Recurrence Pattern
The first element you will want to set is your Recurrence pattern. This is where you will select the regular frequency of the email—weekly, monthly, or yearly.
Start and End Date
After you select your frequency, you can select your start date and end date. The start date is the first day you would like your list emailed to you. The end date is preset to run indefinitely, but you can select a final date if you wish.
Weekly/Monthly/Yearly
The section below the start and end dates will change depending on your recurrence pattern.
Weekly
If your pattern is to send weekly, you will have the ability to modify the time gap between sends. For instance, if you only want to receive the list every other week, you can select weekly for your recurrence but increase the numeric field to 2 so that it says “Send every 2 weeks.” If you leave this field set at 1, you will receive the list every week. From here, you can choose which weekdays you would like to receive your list email. You have the ability to select as many days as you would like.
Monthly
If you select monthly, you will see that this section changes slightly. You now have the ability to send your list every set number of months on the day of your choosing. For example, “Send every 2 months on day 15” means that your list will be emailed to you every other month on the 15th of that month.
Yearly
When you change the recurrence pattern to yearly, the section slightly changes again. Now you have the ability to select the yearly frequency as well as the day of your choosing. When the date field is selected, a small calendar will appear to help you select the month and day. The yearly option would be helpful in an instance where you have an event you need to buy for only once a year. You now have the ability to build a template and schedule it to be sent to your email annually.
Email Notification
The last section allows you to include the email address(es) your list will be sent to as well as customize the email message itself. The default email address is the one that is associated with your account. However, if you would like to replace your default email with a different one, you can do so by clicking the small “x” on the right-hand side of the blue button. Here, you also have the ability to add additional emails if you would like others on your team to receive these regular lists as well. As for the messaging, we have a default subject line as well as a blank body paragraph that will populate once the email is sent, but you can change and/or add any other information you would like.
Create
Now that you have entered all of your preferences, you are ready to click the green Create button. By clicking Create, you have officially saved your template and scheduled your recurring email. You are now done and can put your feet up as you wait for your next list email to arrive!
QUESTIONS?
If you have any questions about this tool or any other functions of our Custom List tool, please contact us!
We think it would be fair to say that many wholesale buyers likely have a go-to list of their favorite authors—whether it’s written down or just a mental list—whose books typically guarantee sales and are always in demand by customers.
With Book Depot’s new Custom List tool, we have created a very easy way for you to upload your unique author list(s) of any size to our list generator. There is no longer a need to plug in one author at a time in the search bar. Now you can upload them all at once and shop the entire list! Once your list is created, you can refer back to it as often as you want or even create a template to have that list emailed to you at the frequency of your choosing.
Video Tutorial
Here is a brief video tutorial to show you how to use this tool:
Step-by-Step Instructions
Once you are logged into your account, you can find our Custom List tool under the profile icon at the top of the webpage in My Lists (or by clicking here). When you get to the page, you may notice that you already have a list or two already created. These are example lists we have created for you to help get you started and to aid your browsing experience.
GETTING STARTED
To create a Favorite Authors list, start by clicking on Create. You will see a list of several attributes that you can create a list from. For the purpose of this tutorial, check the box next to Author and select Next to proceed to the next page.
AUTHOR
On the Author page, allow a few seconds for the page to load with the thousands of authors that are in our database. In the filter bar you can start typing in the names of your targeted authors, but please remember to use the sequence:last name, first name. As you type in the name, the list will begin to filter down your selection until you see the author you are looking for. When you see the author’s name that you are interested in, simply check the box next to their name. You will now see number alongside the Author heading above the filter bar indicating how many authors you have selected.
To make this process even quicker for you, you also have the option to import a list that you have already created in either a text or Excel file. Simply copy and paste your list into the filter bar, remembering again to use the correct format (last name, first name), and all the author matches we have in our database will be added to your list. When you have added all the names you desire, you can move onto the next page by clicking Next.
REPORT FIELDS
On this next page, you have the ability to select the information you would like to be included in your downloadable Excel spreadsheet list. We have pre-selected several for you but you can alter these options to whatever you prefer. You even have the option to include the cover image, but please note that if your list exceeds 1,000 titles, the images will not appear due to file size constraints. When you are satisfied with your selections you can continue to the final step by clicking Next.
FINALIZE
On this last page, it’s now time to finalize your list and then move it to a shoppable format or create a template from the list and schedule it to be delivered to your email. The Review section gives you the ability to make any last-minute changes to any of the attributes that make up your list. Since we only selected Authors for this list, all the other attributes listed should have All included or No filter applied listed. The only attribute that will be impacted from this tutorial is Authors, and that will specify the number of authors you have selected for your list.
The Name section is your next step, where you simply need to name your list. Once you have done that, you have the option to create a template by checking the box beside Create as template. If you choose to create the template, a scheduling program will appear that gives you several options including frequency of recurrence (weekly, monthly, yearly), start and end dates, day of the week, etc. You need to include the email address(es) that you want to send to list to, and you can also create a subject and message for that email to remind you of what you are receiving. Whether you choose to create a template or not, you must finalize the list by clicking on the green Create button at the bottom of the page.
If you decided to just create the list and not template it, you will see a pop-up to either view the list on our site using a special viewing page which allows you to add items to your cart, or to download the list to an Excel spreadsheet.
TEMPLATES
If you chose to create a template, you will see that list under My Templates. To view it immediately, you need to select Create Now and that list will be moved over to My Lists. By doing so, you now have the ability to open it on the custom view page on the site, or you can also download it to an Excel spreadsheet under Actions.
If you have any questions about this tool or any other functions of our Custom List tool, please contact us!
