Ina Steiner EcommerceBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on ecommerce.
by Ina Steiner, Editor of EcommerceBytes.com
Tue Dec 19 2023 22:17:34

Would You Trust eBay AI to Auto-Post for You on Social Media?

By: Ina Steiner

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eBay launched a tool for sellers that uses AI (artificial intelligence) to create captions for them when they want to promote their listings on social media. eBay described the challenge it hopes the tool will solve: "For eBay sellers, social media can be an invaluable tool for publicizing, promoting, and popularizing their listings - but figuring out the best phrasing can feel challenging."

Sellers can find the tool on the "Social" page in the Marketing tab in Seller Hub - when they start to create a social post, eBay will display a "Use AI Caption" button. 

Sellers can use eBay's generative AI tool to share individual listings, categories, promotions, and stores.

"Our generative AI crafts a post about the item being listed, including hashtags and emojis," eBay explained. "The seller can prompt the AI to rewrite captions and also manually customize to include any, all, or none of those extra features. Once published, the post also includes a link to the listing(s) along with images of the item to attract new buyers."

The social-captioning feature is fully available in the US, UK, Germany, and Australia, and eBay said it was seeing a great response from early users.

Soon, sellers will be able to choose to automatically post their eBay listings to social media as soon as they're published, with no additional action needed. However, eBay may have to overcome sellers' skepticism of AI and of eBay's technological capabilities before they'll be comfortable putting the tool on auto-pilot. 

A little like the old Clairol ads for hair dye - "Does she or doesn't she (dye her hair)," we're all starting to ask about words and pictures we see, "Is it authentic, or is it AI?"

Can eBay's AI captioning tool provide an authentic voice for online sellers on social media? Or will auto-posting every new listing feel like stilted spam to sellers' followers?

Comments (20) | Leave Comment | Permalink
Readers Comments

Perminate Link for Would You Trust eBay AI to Auto-Post for You on Social Media?   Would You Trust eBay AI to Auto-Post for You on Social Media?

This user has validated their user name. by: COVID-19

Wed Dec 20 02:12:43 2023

How lazy can your average eBay seller get? I'm already seeing more and more listings using AI Description that's nothing but fluff. You ever hear sales pitch by used car salesmen? That's exactly what eBay's AI sounds like.

Lazy sellers deserve all the INADs coming their way.

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by: GetAGrip This user has validated their user name.

Wed Dec 20 06:26:15 2023

I wouldn't trust fleecebay to clean the mud off of the bottom on my shoes. They have proven over the years that the only thing they are good at is lying and stealing your money.

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by: pace306 This user has validated their user name.

Wed Dec 20 08:46:39 2023

Note to the Ex-Walmart Dope:

This is NOT how you increase sales and traffic on your platform.

No AI, no Magic, no games, no secret deals, no fake VERO - NONE of it. Get back to your roots and %101 concentrate on SELLING goods.

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This user has validated their user name. by: toolguy

Wed Dec 20 09:01:13 2023

eBay's "AI" is clueless to what my used American made tools are.

I laughed when the "AI" banner popped up

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by: volvo351 This user has validated their user name.

Wed Dec 20 11:32:32 2023

The San Jose Mafia has the Reverse Midas Touch; everything they touch turns to crap. In their hands, "artificial intelligence" will degrade to GENUINE stupidity!

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This user has validated their user name. by: Rexford

Wed Dec 20 15:19:57 2023

I don"t trust AI for anything.

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by: Snapped This user has validated their user name.

Wed Dec 20 19:27:19 2023

“Would You Trust eBay…”

Woah, stop, that’s enough.

No.

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by: pace306 This user has validated their user name.

Wed Dec 20 19:43:19 2023

I would %100 trust the ecommerce company that brought us such innovations as theft, coercion, harassment, collusion, and more to "help me" create MY listings ....! (sarcasm off).

This is the company that put a hit on the Steiners, that makes back end deals to keep sellers from selling refurbished items (unless you sign an NDA and more), the company that %99 finds against its own sellers in each and every case, the company that has 9000 employees yet cant find the time to rid the site of fakes, the company that attacks sellers using fake VERO claims (like parallel import violations - when they could easily look up Kirtsaeng and see the case is fake) and more ...

yes - we ALL trust eBay .... aka the San Jose Mafia

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by: Bubbles This user has validated their user name.

Thu Dec 21 01:42:46 2023

Tried the AI for listing descriptions a couple of times and ended up with a page of fluffy word salad for a description. You need to complete several item specifics for it to work.
Buyers are not interested in reading an essay to buy an item. They want the facts clear & concise,, buy & leave.
The time taken to edit the AI version takes longer than writing the description yourself.
No. I wouldn't trust eBay to do anything that actually helps to bring traffic & sales.
They seem to be doing the reverse - pay per click to promote & throttling sales if you sell over their  allotted $ amount for you.

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by: Nothingnewecrater This user has validated their user name.

Thu Dec 21 05:56:04 2023

Ebay is the least trustworthy site in the galaxy.

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by: Fruitylovesyou This user has validated their user name.

Thu Dec 21 06:59:46 2023

So AMWAY, even your grandma would unfriend you

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This user has validated their user name. by: toolguy

Thu Dec 21 09:18:22 2023

I open eBay everyday with the hope of finding treasure, if I sell something that's just a bonus.

I LOVE MY JOB (retired)

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by: airbrake This user has validated their user name.

Thu Dec 21 15:21:05 2023

Trust The San Jose Mafia with Nutin!

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by: BatmanOfOz This user has validated their user name.

Thu Dec 21 21:48:56 2023

I have a few emojis that I could use here to say what I think of this!  A little brown smiling pile...a single finger...skull and crossbones, etc!
I would tell eBay, "Surely, you Can't be Serious," but they Wouldn't get the joke!
^^X^^

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This user has validated their user name. by: Rexford

Fri Dec 22 06:18:52 2023

He's like the wanna be teacher's pet. Thinking that if he flatters eBay they'll boost him in search. Very strange.

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by: Fruitylovesyou This user has validated their user name.

Fri Dec 22 08:32:32 2023

And let me speak plainly.

I TRUST THEY WOULD EFF IT UP

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This user has validated their user name. by: toolguy

Fri Dec 22 12:04:51 2023

Off Topic

Hooray for Google!

They no longer show the Steiner's house when you Google "Ecommercebytes"

Now you get a map of Natick and a PO box!

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This user has validated their user name. by: Bidonmine

Sun Dec 24 18:36:35 2023

No.

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by: Alfacar This user has validated their user name.

Tue Dec 26 15:15:34 2023

I would NOT. EBAY can’t get anything right. Glitch on top of glitch. Missing buttons. Promotions that are missing items in promotions. Impressions that are tanking. All that to disrupt small non high volume sellers performance and boost their buddies. You can’t have promotions that collide with their buddies promotions- maybe you would steal the traffic meant to go to their buddies stores. Ebay turned into the worst most crooked business. Oh and they would penalize you with extra bad feedbacks or returns if you criticized them. So watch out.

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by: eBetsy This user has validated their user name.

Fri Jan 5 13:18:38 2024

In a word…NO.



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