eBay Makes Visual Shopping More Intuitive While You Browse

You’re browsing on eBay and you see a pair of shoes that catches your eye. You like them, but you want to explore your options. Now it’s easy to discover more of what you like with a tap.

eBay’s latest feature lets you use words and pictures in a new way to shop, discover and explore on eBay. If you see something that piques your interest while shopping through eBay’s catalog, just tap on the three dots on the top right corner of the listing and start exploring similar items.

If this sounds familiar, it’s a feature that couples eBay’s advances in computer vision with relevant filters. It’s leveraging existing technologies and putting them together in a way that creates a seamless, intuitive shopping experience.

Here’s how to use the feature. Open the eBay app, search or tap browse to visit one of eBay’s categories or interests, then tap on the three dots next to an item you would like to explore. This will pull up a screen that lets you explore a number of options related to the item, including the popular “looks like this” feature.

See a pair of shoes that inspires you, but they aren’t exactly what you’re looking for? Now you can use this feature to explore the most popular characteristics in that category. Or if you want a look-a-like item, tap “looks like this” to help find similar items.

This started as an idea when creating a filter for locally sold items. As my coworkers and I were shopping for local items on eBay, they wanted a way to quickly filter for items in a specific category. Then they thought, “What if we expanded it to searching and browsing?” They took that concept to eBay’s 2018 Hack Week, where they were able to build on the idea. They added more options and integrated with eBay’s image recognition capabilities built by the eBay Computer Vision team for “looks like this”.

When they designed this feature, eBay thought hard about which options to put on the menu. They didn’t want to take every aspect of every item, as this would be overwhelming. So they made it concise with just a few options that felt natural. For example, in sneakers, options could be brand, style, color or features. Fewer options make it simple and intuitive for their buyers.

By combining pictures and words, this new experience empowers their customers to explore eBay and discover items that they may not have known how to describe. Try it now live on eBay iOS and Android apps in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Australia.

Source: eBay

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