eBay to Launch New Features So Consumers Can Search and Shop Using Images

On July 26, eBay (NASDAQ:$EBAY) announced that it will be launching two new features, called “Image Search” and “Find It On eBay”. The new additions to the e-commerce site will allow shoppers to make use of pictures instead of words to search for their desired product. Using new and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, both features were created for users to find the products they want or love quickly and efficiently. It also makes the entire internet shoppable on the consumer’s mobile phones.

“Moments of shopping inspiration can come at any time, whether you’re walking down the street or browsing your social media feed,” eBay’s vice president of buyer experience Mohan Patt explained. “At eBay, we’re focused on creating new complementary technology that helps our millions of shoppers easily find the things they love at the best value. eBay Image Search and Find It On eBay makes it possible for people to shop eBay using any image or photo that inspires them.”

eBay plans to make Find It On eBay and Image Search available for consumers some time in the fall of 2017. Image Search will be supported on both Android and iOS devices. Find It On eBay will only be supported on Android, but may be available on iOS devices in the future.

Here’s how it works

To use Image Search, users either take a photo or use an existing photo of a product they want to buy and enter it into the Search bar. The e-commerce site will then produce a number of listings that matches or is visually similar to the product the user has uploaded a picture of.

To use Find It On eBay, users share the URL of the picture on whatever social media they were browsing and the eBay app will the produce a number of listings for the product the user has linked.

The power of artificial intelligence and machine learning

Both Image Search and Find It On eBay, as mentioned, were developed using artificial intelligence and machine learning. As a result, eBay will be able to continuously improve the eBay Image Search and Find It On eBay experiences for its consumers. The features have the potential to produce richer results with the use of filtering. For example, search results can be listed as new, nearly new, and used items.

The new features will hopefully be able to give eBay an upper-hand when it comes to tough competition from e-commerce giant Amazon (NASDAQ:$AMZN). “When it comes to creating new, innovative shopping experiences, eBay is at a technological advantage due to the rich set of user-generated images and item data we’ve accumulated through the years,” Patt said of the company. “By applying machine learning technology, eBay can deliver a fast and reliable shopping experience backed by one of the world’s largest commerce data sets.”