Sellers on any online marketplace know that the key to success is a well-constructed product detail page (PDP). But putting together a good PDP can be time-consuming, which is why many marketplaces are now rolling out AI-powered tools to help with the process. The latest of these is Ebay’s new image-based “Magical Listing Tool,” which leverages AI to help sellers list items with ease.
“We’ve tasked ourselves with a challenge that seems paradoxical — and also vital,” said the company in a blog post announcing the update. “We want more detailed, more accurate and more in-depth listings, so buyers can access more information as they shop. But we also want those same listings to be faster and easier for sellers to create. Until recently, we would have had to choose one of these goals or the other. Now, though, we don’t need to. Artificial intelligence can achieve both of these goals at the same time.”
The image-based tool is actually the next iteration of Ebay’s “magical listing experience.” In its first version the tool used AI to analyze, research and extrapolate information about a product from a small amount of data provided by the seller. For example, a seller could add a listing title and product category and the tool would then come back with an AI-generated description for the product. Now the tool does the same, but all a seller needs to do is upload an image of the product.
Sellers take or upload a photo in the Ebay app (iOS only for now) and watch AI fill in item information details. From a single photo, the tool can generate titles, descriptions and product information, which could include product release date as well as detailed category and sub-category, and which can combine with Ebay’s other tech to suggest a listing price and shipping cost. At the same time, Ebay also is rolling out an improved background removal tool for images to make it easier to create compelling, clean product images.
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Ebay gave trading cards as an example of a good use case in the blog post, noting that buyers of collectibles often demand a great deal of information about a product before they make a purchase — things like manufacturer, set, league, team, card number, parallel/variety, grade, year and more. Having all those critical details pulled in automatically will vastly improve both the buying and selling process.
All of these tools are designed to address what Ebay refers to as the “cold start” problem, which is that first-time sellers in particular can often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information required to create a competitive listing. The first, text-based version of the tool is now available to all U.S. Ebay app users (both iOS and Android). The image-based version has rolled out as an employee beta and will be made available to users in the coming months.
To see the image-based version of the Magical Listing Tool in action, check out this video.
