Listen to the article
Dive Brief:
Diving further into the AI craze, eBay has unveiled a suite of new tech features to support its sellers, the e-commerce platform announced last week.
The company is harnessing AI to help sellers in the U.K. and the U.S. respond to buyers’ messages. In the coming weeks, the company will allow select U.S. merchants to manage their inventories using its Inventory Mapping API, according to the announcement.
Within its messaging app and on the site, eBay’s Offers in Messaging tool will aggregate negotiations between U.S. sellers and buyers in one spot. The company also introduced a cost-tracking tool that monitors the costs associated with their merchandise sales, enabling them to make better pricing decisions, the release said.
Dive Insight:
With the rollout of its new suite of AI-powered features, eBay continues to integrate AI into its infrastructure. About a year ago, the company enhanced its Magical Listing tool, which automatically drafts product listing information. Earlier this year, the company debuted another AI tool that uses product images to generate item descriptions.
Along with its other upgrades, eBay will soon automate positive feedback for sellers whose purchasers don’t provide feedback on their own, per the release. The feature will be available to U.S. users in September.
Similarly, other major retailers have been exploring AI applications this year. Earlier this year, Poshmark introduced its Smart List AI feature, which assists users with generating product listings. Meanwhile, Walmart is using AI and real-time monitoring to review product listings for possible intellectual property infringement or other infractions.
During an earnings call with analysts last month, Etsy’s chief growth officer, Kruti Patel Goyal, mentioned that the company is using generative AI to “understand our listings, users and their activity much more deeply as we work to deliver better search results.”
Alongside its tech upgrades, eBay is rolling out additional protections for sellers experiencing delivery woes. In October, the company will introduce its item not received (INR) protection feature that reimburses sellers for the cost of items received by buyers after a refund is issued, per the press release. In its second-quarter earnings release, eBay also highlighted its generative AI video tool, which creates listing images into short-form videos optimized for TikTok and YouTube.
Ebay’s tech investments come as the company boasts an increase in revenue and gross merchandise volume. In its Q2 earnings report, eBay reported a 6% rise in revenues year over year to $2.7 billion. Its gross merchandise volume also saw a 6% bump.