Can eBay Pull Off New Personalized Shopping Feature?

by: FidoMaster

''eBay users have made it clear that they want basic functions to work before the company adds bells and whistles.''

Touché!

Fix the apps so they work properly before you spend effort on more gimmicks like whatever this gimmick is or the recent ridiculous goofy ''AI powered box size chooser'' that was expressly made for nothing more than an eBay press release with ''AI'' in the subject. Nicely done, congrats.

Does anyone use it?  No, but it sure sounds cool

How about fixing the Android app for once and all so sellers can batch background upload and increase their productivity?

Wenig, here's your business case:
Streamlined seller app listing functionality = increased seller productivity
Increased seller productivity = more listings
more listings = more eBay listing fees
more listings = more buyer marketplace options
more marketplace options = more buyers
more buyers = more transactions
more transactions = eBay revenue & GMV growth

Have someone do a time and motion study of sellers using the app. It's fraught with efficiency and glitches.  

Plz fix k? tks.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Mobile-App-Android/Upload-Mu
ltiple-Pictures-at-Once-on-App/td-p/27177616

by: FidoMaster

INefficiency (not that I think anyone was going to mistake my typo)

by: iheartjacksparrow

"... the world's largest selection of inventory...." If eBay would actually enforce their ban on duplicate listings, they would find that their inventory counts had dropped by millions.  

by: ebayout

Maybe someday ebay will be as proud of their coding as they are of their inventory.
But that would mean paying more than a ham sandwich and a cup of tea for their contract IT people.

by: FidoMaster

"... the world's largest selection of inventory...." If eBay would actually enforce their ban on duplicate listings, they would find that their inventory counts had dropped by millions.  

This is accurate.  I invite any reader to replicate this test:

1) Search eBay for any seller with duplicate BIN items
2) Use the "report item" link above the description to report duplicates
3) Paste the reported items into a document so you can track them
4) Check back periodically to see if anything has changed  (days, weeks or months for GTC listings).  

I have performed this more than a few times.  NONE of the flagrant reported dupe listings have ever been removed.  

Perhaps it takes dozens or even hundreds of reports for items to even show on anyone's radar for eBay to bother looking at. Even then it's questionable if they can be bothered to enforce their own policy.

by: RL15

another stupid move by the delusional ceo.

if only he would let buyers search for and find what they want not what fleecebay thinks they want.

by: geoffreymason

Ebay can't "pull off" anything. More blather.

by: pace306

Its just a cry for attention from ...

"see look at me ! We have a new function (that doesnt work) - we are the KINGS of ecommerce!!!!"

Maybe they could Facebook it too ! LMAO

by: RKTOYS

"If eBay would actually enforce their ban on duplicate listings, they would find that their inventory counts had dropped by millions."
Very true.  All you have to do is change a letter in the title and they sail right on through any supposed validation.  But, seriously, I get the idea that _alot_ of inventory online is phantom inventory.  That's why certain toys seem to hang around too long and then suddenly disappear from everywhere all at once.  I know I had the same stuff, literally, listed at eBay, eCrater, Amazon, Bonanza, and WebStore, and many of the established stores have/had venue accounts as well.


 I know when I get a large listing promotion, I duplicate items.

by: Rexford

Wenig whispering for Wall Street........again?

by: Silver Ice King

@Rexford

Not Whispering - Screaming to try and get the stock price back up above $40 so he can unload some more of those stock options before he leaves the company.  I am sure he sees the writing on the wall or would not have taken the BOD position with GM while Ebay continues to flounder into oblivion.

I must admit I wonder how many of those option are able to be used if he leaves the company before they hit a certain price.  That may not be a stipulation anymore but used to be a tactic that was used to stop the executives from using a lot of short term plans to boost the stock and then leaving the company shortly after the conversion of the options and  the company with no long term plan in place.  Now that I think about it, that seems to be exactly how Ebay has operated for the last 10+ years - except the CEO has unfortunately stuck around even after the fact:(

by: eXtinctBay

@RKToys

Yes, a lot of items on eBay are ''Phantom Inventory'' due to dropshippers.

The merchandise comes from one source, and when the inventory is sold down, POOF! The listings (at least from the ''agents'' who pay attention to inventory / stock levels) disappear.

I think eBay wants to clamp down on those who do not actually have the goods in hand and ready to ship. These many listings clog up the site with redundant JUNK. Why else did their counsel call drop ship artists crooks??

The Czar of this eBay program introduced a similar shopping feature to another EC website, and it was a colossal failure- the company went quickly belly up.

Again, if eBay just allowed all their items to be shown at all times (and also got rid of duplicate listings), buyers should easily find what they are seeking without the help of artificial intelligence online shoppers.

by: eXtinctBay

MORE INFORMATION ON THIS FEATURE:

https://www.fastcompany.com/40573863/ebays-new-feature
-finds-the-products-you-might-actually-buy

by: leathermermaid8

Well I don't need a "personalized" store.  The AI currently doing this just shows me more of the same things I bought or looked at, which we've all commented on, at one time or another.  

I would really like to see current software working well.  I'd like to search and NOT have the screen show 247 results but only a blank, frozen page for whatever reason.  

It's good they want to pursue new ways to attract buyers but they have to work the bugs out of what they already have.

Shopping carts should allow you to combine shipping if the seller permits it.  
I'd like to lock in USA to shop instead of constantly having to change the default TO USA.  Asked for all the time.  Tired of them showing me only California listings when I shop for thread one week, and only the Carolinas the next.  Gotta be sewing thread in NYC too, right?  Dakota?  

Oh, and the site needs to work well with all browsers.  

by: Grady

These numerous articles are heavily biased towards Ebay. They rarely ever accurately depict how the platform actually performs (or fails to). If any of these authors knew how nothing on the site actually ever works, they may actually find that more newsworthy that these press releases that they cut and paste. Journalism has been dead for a long time. In other news, Disney buys Fox!

by: pace306

....... somehow we are back to the "evil dropshippers" ....

eBay encourages dropshipping - so Im suprised at everyones consternation on the topic.

Does it inflate eBays numbers - of course
Does it fill eBays listings to make it look like eBay has a more complete catalog - yes
Is it all smoke and mirrors - yes

Is any of this NEW? - no

eBay knows that it exists- thats why their counsel's slurs is as bizarre  as it comes.

eBay gives large sellers discounts when they list 1000s of items -  they know its all a "feed" and software. The software is set to keep that SKU "live" until the distributors inventory goes below a certain level, then it takes that listing off eBay. Thats why it dissapears so quickly.

In most cases, those items are real - they just arent in stock at that vendor.

Not that this has anything to do with eBay and its personalized shopping. ebay software is so bad as it is - they cant predict anything..... its a snooze fest for Wall Street - and the genius's there eat it up like theres no tomorrow ... dopes

by: Grady

Wall Street is just as rigged as professional sports

by: gramophone-georg

eBay can't even pull a sausage off a dinner plate, so I doubt they'll pull this off either.

by: pace306

eBay cant do this but they can:

Steal from you with impunity
Fill the vending machines on the 3rd flood with Mountain Dew
Refill the toilet paper in DWs executive washroom
Fuel up DWs private jet
NOT show up at trade shows like CES
Be anything like Amazon
Be respectful of sellers

stuff like that

Oh and they CAN act like the trench coat mafia  

by: ebayout

If all the needless pixels that ebay creates were people with the same message, there'd be mayhem.