Live shopping function to Germany. The first sales livestreams will be on November 29th from the Comic Con trade fair in Stuttgart. In the USA, Ebay Live’s business has grown five times larger within a year, said CEO Jamie Iannone of the German Press Agency. The online auction pioneer’s presence in the German market includes, among other things, live sales on the short video platform Tiktok, which have been available since spring.
On Ebay Live you can sell both in auctions and via Buy It Now. Users can make comments and ask the sellers questions. In Germany, eBay will initially make the function available for collectibles and fashion, with other categories to follow next year.
“Interpersonal connection”
Iannone sees an “element of human connection” in the format and says people like to engage with enthusiasts and experts. Sellers could use the live streams to cultivate a fan base around their topics and thereby increase sales away from the camera. Trading cards and luxury items are often offered in the live streams in the USA – but the Salvation Army, for example, also auctions used clothing and accessories at a starting price of one dollar.
Shop yourself instead of using AI
Under Iannone’s leadership, Ebay focused heavily on some categories such as collectibles, auto parts and, above all, used fashion. In his view, this largely protects eBay’s business from possible upheavals caused by artificial intelligence. AI companies develop software that can independently complete tasks on behalf of users. These so-called agents could then, for example, also take on orders for online shopping – and in doing so would most likely also communicate with similarly autonomous software on the seller’s side.
However, Iannone is convinced that in areas where Ebay is active, people will continue to enjoy shopping for themselves in the future. “For routine purchases that you make over and over again, you might be inclined to take out a subscription” – or have it done by a shopping agent, said the eBay boss. But if you buy a luxury handbag, for example, “people enjoy such shopping experiences”.
AI tools for users
Ebay focuses its own AI efforts on making the platform easier to use – rather than replacing the role of humans. This allows sellers to have automatic item descriptions created based on photos. These descriptions are sometimes criticized online as being too general and flowery. Iannone emphasizes that sellers can edit the automatically generated texts. In the next step, Ebay wants to improve the search on the platform with the help of artificial intelligence – so that inquiries can be made in complete sentences.
Live shopping in Germany is just beginning
With Ebay Live, Iannone sees potential for events that could bring a fan base together on the platform at fixed times, for example if a seller sells Pokémon items on Fridays. Interested parties could then look forward to the day – just like there used to be TV evenings when everyone gathered in front of the television. Regarding the market for live shopping in Germany, the Ebay boss says: “I think it is at an earlier stage of development, but has just as much potential as we see in other markets.”
With today’s software, it would not be technically a problem to have people generated by AI appear as salespeople in live broadcasts. He knows that there are streams with avatars in Asia – “and people still watch them”. But Ebay is focused on use by people.