eBay Wants to Reach Shoppers Wherever They Are

by: Ric

As usual, eBay is dead wrong in their belief that users will accept being hunted and chased down anywhere they happen to be on the Internet.

If ever there was a strategy to alienate buyers, this AI plan is number one.

eBay has been anticipating what they believe buyers are looking for for several years. The result is that the eBay marketplace is showing single digit GMV growth which is not reflective of actual increases in merchandise turnover, but rather, the fact that shipping costs many sellers include in their selling price has increased.

IF or when eBay beings hunting users across the Internet, eBay should expect a significant decline in their user base shortly after the program begins.

If eBay really wants to help buyers find what they are looking for, simply fix the search engine so that it returns results relevant to the specific search terms users enter, and eliminate the algorithm that makes all the assumptions which cause non relevant items to be presented.

by: pace306

Personally, I dont want that weird looking guy following me anywhere.

Look, he cant even get eBay right, how is he going to manage ANY AI?

He had to call out Ole' Griff to BEG then THREATEN sellers to put UPC data in their listings ... jeez - eBay isnt a leader in ANYTHING.

If anyone cares to argue (and they can by all means) I point to TWICE's top 100 etailers list ..... eBay isnt anywhere to be seen. Its as invisible to the industry and it is to sellers (and buyers).

RIC (Of course) is %101 correct with his comments on how they love to alienate buyers .... its a shame no one in San Jose listens to  what he says.

"Wenig said eBay didn't need help understanding the customer" THAT ladies and gentleman is the lie of the decade (right before you will save $2500 a yr on Obamacare).

What a looser.

by: bitbybit

Creepy. More like stalking. Maybe users should file for a protective order or class action for invasion of privacy. Ebay has already taken the fun out of auctions and this relentless hounding will end any desire to shop. Nobody likes to be told what to do and nobody wants items they are not looking for shoved in their face 24/7. Heck, buyers don't even want the items they ARE looking for shown repeatedly over and over to the point where they become disinterested resulting in not making a purchase and/or cart abandonment.  

by: Bill

A little sample of eBay's supposed Artificial Intelligence. I got an email over the weekend that stated:
Hello Bill, would you like to take another look? We've picked this out for you
It was for my own listing that I had looked at to see how it was showing up.

They are spending millions on this pile of dung they call AI and not doing anything at all to get buyers and to make the search easy to use.

eBay is dying and as it is the rats are jumping the ship and dumping their stock as fast as they can. IE: Mike Jacobson

by: Ming the Merciless

This is infuriating, and it's already begun.

I buy occasionally on ebafia but what really demonstrates ebafia's utter ineptitude is that they're showing me MY items!

Another spot on demonstration of ebafia's inexperienced and incompetent foreign "programmers."

by: nothingnew

Gee I thought It was against ebay rules to contact or buyers after a sale on their site?  But now they think its ok to stalk the shoppers? Of course do what we say not what we do.  Ha!  

by: Whatever

Oh goody - Oh joy - can't wait. Like they don't already have enough obnoxious pop up ads in your face. let's continue to run off what's left of the buyers.

by: FeelingFroggy

Yep time to shop elsewhere. Don't need some creepy old man following us around.

Willing to bet Fleecebay Artificial Intelligence isn't any smarter than the fool who thought up this moronic idea.

Moving on with our buying and leaving the creepy crawler to those that don't know better.

Bye Bye Buying Elsewhere.

by: Philip Cohen

eBay's infantile form of AI is already hunting everyone; I only have to look at an item on eBay, then, most irritatingly, ads about that product literally follow me everywhere.

These people are naive in the extreme; worse still, they are stupid ...

The eBay executive suite—where the incompetent mingle with the disingenuous, the unscrupulous, the malevolent, the outright criminal, and the just plain stupid. ...

by: The End

HEY WENIG > "Ebay" is just a platform, a venue.
Do us all a favor : do an "undercover boss" routine and BE a seller.
Lose the polished look and go around to yard sales gathering up stuff to sell on "Your" Ebay.
Travel miles and miles 3 or 4 days a week, for TWO months. Keep a log of time and money spent.
Then figure out what you need to do to sell the stuff and successfully  get it delivered to the eventual buyers.
You can't "reach us", the PROCESS has to "reach" you. Only then can you begin to get it.
At the end, when you sell the LAST item, total up all of your expenses, and subtract from your income.
What's 'a matter? Afraid you'll be in hock ? You're a big boy, you can handle reality, can't you ? Now go ahead, no short cuts or B.S....Let us know how it goes...

by: The End

Oh, I'm sorry, you don't realize Ebay customers are the SELLERS. That's your first mistake....

by: The End

Scoot over and let me show you how Ebay should work.....

by: mindelec

When I hear wenig talk like this all  can do is sigh and shake my head....

Just give me the results of a keyword search and I will figure out the rest.  I don't need any predictions of what I want, I know what I want and I know how to find it.

by: gettingby

Like Ming, I am constantly seeing my own items.
I have to say, it's not just eBay, though. AZ haunts me, too, among other e-tail sites. I do most of my shopping online, and I comparison shop to find just what I want. I then get swamped with ads on many different (not shopping) sites for the same or similar item to one I've viewed or purchased. This is a real annoyance to me. If I wanted it, I bought it.

I make a purchase, and see "we also thought you'd like", or "come back and buy" ... Why on earth would I need more of the same "hard-goods" product I just bought? Does AI think that within days I've already ruined or lost the canopy... coffeemaker... camera...  lamp... cylinder square... bracelet... or whatever?
God forbid I purchase a gift for someone whose needs or size or taste are much different from mine. I bought some infant clothing for our granddaughter, and suddenly I'm swamped with ads for size 6 month baby clothes. Umm... She won't wear that size very long!!
What if I'd like to gift someone with a $50 scarf, but prefer a $25 one for myself?

AI can't determine the reason for a purchase, or that it might be a one-time purchase. Even with a gift for the same person, it might be in a significantly different category -- since I already gifted them a coffeemaker (or whatever)!

by: OnlyPollyPocket

Wow!  The supreme arrogance is stunning!  How DARE ebay decide my "intent"?

Sheesh!

by: Chicago48

listings aren't getting seen on eBay because of the sheer number of listings and its lack of structured data.

^^
Well now I know why one month my sales go dry and the next month the sales roll in.

by: Rexford

Here's what he fails to realize--so many eBay sellers HAVE STOPPED buying on eBay. They refuse to buy on eBay. Sellers can't control eBay policies, but they certainly can choose not to buy on eBay.

And here is what Mr. Stupid doesn't understand--if you check the price of something that you are thinking of selling, you are not looking to BUY it. Therefore you don't need to see it again.

And Ming is right. We are seeing our own items.

eBay is out of their league. They are like someone with a 50 points IQ trying to operate a TI 84 Plus.

by: rhawk

If they simply had a search engine that showed every item available that you searched for, and let sellers compete on a level field, ebay could rebound.

But, they choose to keep trying more disruptive innovation....more utterly stupid ideas.

I shut my ebay down last week. Sales dried up....no visibility.
So glad I did.

Wenigogue....good luck to you.  You and ebay are failing miserably.

You deserve it.

by: Lois

This is incredibly annoying to me! Harassment to the ultimate. Too bad we don't have an eBay 'do not call' option. Just leave me alone. I'm a grown-up; I don't need some 'artificial intelligence' telling me to buy buy buy. My response is no no no.

by: Owen

Great, just what we all need is more sites following us around guessing at what we want. Every time I even look at something for sale online, it magically pops up on every screen in the future for several weeks. We're all pretty darned sick of that. I never click on stuff like that unless it's an accident.