Online trading platform eBay brings its live shopping function to Germany. The first sales livestream will take place on November 29th from the Comic Con trade fair in Stuttgart. In the US, Ebay Live’s business has grown five times larger in a year, said CEO Jamie Iannone of the German Press Agency. In the German market, the online auction pioneer is offering, among other things, live sales on the short video platform TikTok, which has been available since spring.
On Ebay Live you can sell both by auction and by Buy It Now. Users can leave comments and ask questions to sellers. In Germany, eBay will initially provide the function for collectibles and fashion, with other categories to follow next year.
“Interpersonal connection”
Iannone sees the format as a “human connection element” and says people love interacting with fans and experts. Sellers can use live streaming to grow a fan base around their topic and thereby increase off-camera sales. In live streaming on United States of America Trading cards and luxury items are often offered – but the Salvation Army, for example, also auctions used clothing and accessories for a starting price of one dollar.
Shop yourself instead of using AI
Under Iannone’s leadership, Ebay focused heavily on categories such as collectibles, auto parts, and most importantly, second-hand fashion. In his view, this greatly protects eBay’s business from possible upheavals caused by artificial intelligence. Developing an AI company softwarewho can complete tasks independently on behalf of the user. These so-called agents could then, for example, also take orders for online shopping – and most likely also communicate with similar autonomous software on the seller’s side.
However, Iannone is confident that in areas where Ebay is active, people will continue to enjoy shopping for themselves in the future. “For regular purchases that you make over and over again, you may be more likely to subscribe” – or have them done by a shopping agent, the eBay boss said. But if you buy a luxury handbag, for example, “people enjoy that kind of shopping experience.”
AI tools for users
Ebay is focusing its AI efforts on making the platform easier to use – rather than replacing humans. This allows sellers to create automated item descriptions based on photos. This description is sometimes criticized online for being too general and flowery. Iannone emphasized that sellers can edit automatically generated text. In the next step, Ebay wants to improve search on its platform with the help of artificial intelligence – so that questions can be made in complete sentences.
Direct shopping in Germany has just begun
With eBay Live, Iannone saw the potential for events that could unite the platform’s fan base at a specific time, for example if sellers were selling Pokémon items on Fridays. Interested parties can then look forward to the day – just as there usually is an evening TV show when everyone gathers in front of the television. Regarding the direct shopping market in Germany, the Ebay boss said: “I think it is still in the early stages of development, but it has as much potential as we see in other markets.”
With today’s software, it’s technically not a problem if AI-generated people appear as salespeople in live broadcasts. He knows that there are streams with avatars in Asia – “and people are still watching them”. But Ebay focuses on people using it.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251120-930-315607/1
