eBay Announces New Search by Image Features

eBay announced two new search features to help shoppers find items using images they have on their mobile devices or images they find on social networking sites like Pinterest. Image Search and Find It On eBay are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning and will be available in the fall.

Company announcement follows:

Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable new ways for shoppers to search for their favorite items with images that inspire.

Today, eBay announced Image Search and Find It On eBay, new experiences for shoppers to use pictures instead of words to search eBay’s catalog of 1.1 billion items spanning the new and truly unique. Enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning, these innovative ways to shop will allow people to quickly find the things they love, making the entire internet shoppable on their mobile device.

“Moments of shopping inspiration can come at any time, whether you’re walking down the street or browsing your social media feed,” said Mohan Patt, Vice President of Buyer Experience, eBay. “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 make it possible for people to shop eBay using any image or photo that inspires them.”

A new way to discover your version of perfect
With Image Search, shoppers can take a photo or use an existing photo from their camera roll of an item they want to purchase and enter it into the Search bar. eBay will then surface listings that are a close match or visually similar so users can purchase.

With Find It On eBay, shoppers on any social platform – such as Pinterest or simply browsing their favorite blog or website – can simply “Share” the URL with eBay and the eBay mobile app will surface listings of the product.

Powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning
To help people solve the challenge of spending hours scouring stores or the web for certain items, eBay applied artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. These technologies are already embedded across the eBay experience making the Marketplace’s vast product catalog easily searchable. As people continue to use eBay Image Search, eBay will be able to surface even richer results and filtering – from new, nearly new and used items.

“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. “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.”

Find It On eBay and Image Search will be available this Fall. At the time of launch, Image Search will be supported on both Android and iOS and Find It On eBay on Android.

SOURCE: eBay Announcement

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.