I can see your point in that respect when it comes to previously electronically published books. One alternative is to visit the authors wiki page, for example,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Rankin where the obsessed, errr, fanatics, err fans, have the data organized. (Hint, type wiki and the authors name at any search engine.)
It would of course be nice if the stores mentioned the series name and number. And tell you when the books are omnibuses which contain other already published books.