eBay announced its Background Enhancement tool in March during its quarterly Seller Check-In event, and this week, it officially announced the tool’s availability in a post on the eBay corporate blog.
In a presentation to sellers during the March event, eBay’s Senior Product Manager of Seller Experience Morgan Chen said the eBay app already provided sellers with a way to remove the background from photos with a single click. eBay explained the new capabilities in Tuesday’s announcement as follows:
“Background enhancement lets you remove a less-than-glamorous background from an existing photo using eBay’s background removal tool, leaving just the actual item you’re selling, and then place that item in a stylish new AI-generated backdrop chosen by you from a variety of scenes and vibes. Selling a sturdy pair of pre-loved hiking boots? Swap in a realistic rugged outdoor backdrop. For those collectable vintage action figures you’re listing, maybe try an elegantly minimal studio backdrop or a sleek-looking tabletop scene. It’s quick, creative, and part of the listing process on eBay’s mobile apps for iOS and Android.”
For many years, best practice was to show all product photos against a white background. “Search engines used to put photos with pure white backgrounds at a higher rank in search results, but that’s not the case any more,” Chen had told sellers during the March Seller Check-In. “So now it’s up to you to decide what works the best for your listings.”
See the following video posted to the eBay for Business YouTube channel beginning at minute 31:25:
eBay Background Enhancement is still in early roll-out and is currently available to iOS app users in the US, UK, and Germany. It will gradually roll out to Android over the coming months.
eBay Vice President of Seller Experience Xiaodi Zhang said, “Our sellers’ time is valuable, and we want to ensure our tools allow them to meet their listing goals and drive more sales.”
eBay also added a disclaimer to Tuesday’s announcement, stating:
“Like eBay’s other AI-powered offerings, the background enhancement tool was built in close collaboration with eBay’s Responsible AI team to ensure that the technology was implemented in a fair and safe way, and to mitigate any unintended consequences. It was imperative to ensure that as the tool enhanced product photographs, it didn’t misrepresent items and their condition. User guidance was incorporated within the listing process to remind sellers to check for accuracy in the images they select, and to remind them to be transparent about the role of AI where appropriate.”
” eBay’s Responsible AI team”
Responsible As-If!
^^X^^
Just more window dressing.