BAM eBay Blog

Will Image Search Become a Thing on eBay with Its Acquisition of Corrigon?

There has always been a ton of stuff to search for on eBay.  Now it looks like there will be coming a new way to search, by image. Image searching is something people have been doing via Google's search for a while now when they have an item that they can't find by searching on words describing it.  If you have a "whatzit," as the Kovels used to call it, or a thing that you don't know what it is, you could plop the image into the Google search and select "images."

In the announcement of the acquisition, eBay said, "eBay has signed an agreement to acquire Corrigon Ltd., a pioneer of visual search technologies. Corrigon helps identify objects within an image, matching both visual and textual elements to ensure that the image is recognized, correctly classified and best-matched to its corresponding product. With more than one billion live listings on eBay’s platform, Corrigon's expertise and technology will help match the best images to their products so that shoppers can be confident that what they buy is exactly what they see."

And, "As we continue to evolve the eBay shopping experience, Corrigon's technology and expertise will help buyers find the best results when shopping on eBay through experiences that were not possible a year ago, before our investments in structured data,” said Amit Menipaz, Vice President and General Manager of Structured Data at eBay. “Corrigon represents eBay’s third acquisition in the structured data space this year, further underscoring our commitment to powering deeper inventory insights for our sellers and compelling new user experiences for our buyers.”

Sometimes words alone cannot describe a thing adequately, and that's where image search comes in. There also may be some subtle differences between, say, one type of antique sword and another, and that's where the image search technology could come in to help someone find just the item they are looking for,

I have sometimes advised friends to do an image search on Google if they are not sure what that item they picked up at an estate sale is.  What do you think the acquisition of Corrigon and its move into visual search will mean for you as a shopper? Or even as a seller? Is it something you anticipate using?  Post a comment here! 

What EBay's New Seller Hub Means for You

What does eBay's recently-announced Seller Hub mean for you as a buyer, or as a seller?

Today we take a look at the new Seller Hub and see how it might tweak interactions between buyers and sellers, and help either or both.

One thing the Seller Hub does is lay out all on one screen all the tasks a seller needs to complete. This means, if you have asked a question about an item, it will show up right there in the upper left of the screen under "Answer Product Questions." Hopefully this means you have a better chance of having your question answered than you would have normally, though sellers should of course answer questions as soon as possible.

Beneath that, there's a prompt to respond to any open offers from buyers. Once again, this is another reminder for a seller that you may have an offer in, as sellers sometimes get distracted and don't always notice an offer in their email stack.

Then, of course, there is a field reminding sellers how many orders they need to process and ship.

Under Orders, they can also see all orders needing fulfillment, as well as any open returns or replacements. For example, I have an open return I am awaiting to come back to me right now, so it is good to see this reminder so I may contact the buyer and see if they need any help with the return.

Feedback: one thing I particularly like about the Seller Hub is the reminder under Orders of items that have been shipped and are awaiting to give feedback. As a busy seller, I don't always take the time to give feedback to buyers, although of course as a seller I welcome feedback.

So as a buyer, the hub gives you more chances to see feedback from sellers, if that's something you do not see for every item transaction now.

Most of the other features are seller-related with a chart of sales in the past 90 days, and an area that shows all kinds of information about Listings, including how many are active, and again how many have questions or open offers from buyers,

It also shows how many listings are ending today, and unsold ended listings.

In general, I think the new Seller Hub can only be a good thing in prompting more communication between buyers and sellers, and encouraging sellers to list more, which means more choice for buyers.

What do you think about the new seller hub, and what might you change about it if you could?

Would You Buy or Sell on Facebook Marketplace?

EBay, Craigslist and the other online marketplaces have some new competition...Facebook Marketplace, just announced by Facebook. In the announcement, Facebook noted people have already been using Facebook as a place to buy and sell, mostly using the Groups feature, so this is making the online buying and selling official and one more way to access items by fellow Facebookers.

"Facebook is where people connect, and in recent years more people have been using Facebook to connect in another way, buying and selling with each other," said the announcement: "This activity started in Facebook Groups and has grown substantially. More than 450 million people visit buy and sell groups each month — from families in a local neighborhood to collectors around the world."

They further said, "today we’re introducing Marketplace, a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community. Marketplace makes it easy to find new things you’ll love, and find a new home for the things you’re ready to part with. We’ll continue to build new options and features to make this the best experience for people."

To use the feature, it said, just  "tap on the shop icon at the bottom of the Facebook app and start exploring." The items will be local to you, from users in your community, so some have compared it to more of a Craigslist than an eBay, as there will most likely be local pickup.

What do you think of the idea of buying and selling via Facebook? Do you do it now? Do you use the Groups feature or do it another way? Is this something you think you will use? Post a comment here!

EBay Tips on How Buyers Can Benefit This Holiday Season

In eBay's Holiday Selling Hub for sellers, buyers can read through the lines to get tips on how to benefit themselves this holiday season. Sellers are being prompted to offer great deals and selection, and other incentives. Here are a few ways you can benefit when doing your holiday shopping this season:

- Ask for a Better Price and Look for Markdowns.

EBay is encouraging sellers to create markdowns on prices and special promotions: "Research shows it's the items that include a promotional offer that tend to get the sale, so consider adding compelling offers to your listings via eBay Stores tools like Promotions Manager."  If you don't see a markdown, and the item has Best Offer, go ahead and make a fair offer.

- Free Shipping
Another thing eBay is pushing is free shipping. You should be able to find many items available with free shipping, though bear in mind sellers will often build that in to their base price.

- Expedited Shipping

Need it faster, especially as it gets close to Christmas? Go ahead and ask the seller if they offer expedited shipping. Depending on the item and its weight, you may be able to get it for little extra cost.

- Shop Early

Worried those holiday items won't be listed yet? EBay is pushing sellers to get all that holiday merchandise up now. Here are some interesting stats:

- 20% of U.S. internet users started their holiday shopping during the summer
- 40% of consumers planned to shop on Thanksgiving Day
So go ahead and buy those Christmas ornament gifts early and check those off your shopping list!

- Selection

EBay is also encouraging sellers to offer a wide selection. Don't see something in the color you want, or style? Try asking the seller if they can offer it...some sellers do custom orders. (Custom orders are also something Etsy is known for, so consider looking at that site for some unique gift ideas).

- Gift Wrap

Many sellers are willing to gift wrap an item. Don't see the option on the listing? You can still ask the seller if they are willing to gift wrap or a least include a special little bag or box for the item, such as jewelry.

So be sure and leverage all that sellers are being encouraged to offer this season.

How to Avoid Buying Fakes on eBay and Online

Brands have gotten better, I believe, about policing online marketplaces for fake goods. There may be a fake Chanel item up on eBay a little while but I don't believe it will be there for long.  But that doesn't mean that every brand is policing every item, or if they are, can keep up with it. Still, there are things you can do as a buyer to reduce your chances of getting burned by fakes.

- Avoid Buying the Types of Items Most Often Faked

Some of the most fakes items include things like brand-name shoes and luxury clothing. But it can be other things too like household items...one web sire featured a picture of a fake Sharpie pen, of all things. There can be bootleg movies and even pharmaceuticals and baby products, which could be dangerous. You can avoid buying the latter kind of thing online. For the former..

- Look for all the Signs of Authenticity

Know Thy Luxury Item. I am a big fan of Chanel clothing and jewelry, and I bought a very good authenticity guide that shows what the Chanel signs of fakes are.  These can be things like the logos not looking right, the color of the logo not matching the details of the bag, and the all-important serial number and its modern hologram.

Bear in mind that even if you are buying vintage you may come across a counterfeit item. But a serial number label from the 1990s is going to look different from one from 2016, so you can use an authenticity guide to reference that the item's labels look appropriate for their era.

- Packaging

Luxury items come with specific packaging, such as dust bags for Chanel bags. The one time I got burned by a fake purse on eBay, I noticed its handles cam wrapped in plastic. This was never done with the real brand. It also just felt cheaper, with poor quality leather and hardware. Sometimes the "smell" or "look 'n' feel" test is the best.  Just be sure the seller has a return policy..no return policy is a red flag!

- Seller Feedback

Because it is impossible to know the scope of what all the fake items are out there, you can always carefully check seller feedback. If one person has been burned, likely it will show up there. And if the seller doesn't have any feedback, or very little feedback, don't take the chance buying from them.

It's good to go into a real retail store for a brand to get familiar with exactly how their authentic items look. Some of the fake items are now starting to look as good as real items, so these details matter even more.

"The problem is that the fake products today, they make better quality, better prices than the real products, the real names,” Alibaba chair Jack Ma was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg article. “It’s not the fake products that destroy them, it’s the new business models.”

But he also said Alibaba is the best in the world at fighting the sale of counterfeits.

So, be careful out there. It doesn't mean you can't find plenty of real deals online -- just watch out that the deal is not too good to be true.