Ebay deploys live shopping platform
With Ebay Live, US group Ebay is keen to take advantage of the growing appetite shown by brands and consumers for live shopping sessions. Ebay Live is currently in its final test phase, allowing users to ask questions and make purchases directly via the solution’s live-streamed video sessions.
For the launch, the Ebay group has decided to create an event dedicated to collectors of sport-themed trading cards. The online marketplace is going back to its roots, having always been “a major hub for the exchange of trading cards and collectibles,” said Dawn Block, Ebay’s vice-president in charge of the Electronics, Home and Collections categories. “Currently in the beta phase, Ebay Live will provide our community with a simpler, more entertaining and more sophisticated way to connect, buy and sell,” she added.
Ebay Live will be accessible via a new, eponymous section on the Ebay site, as well as on the corresponding app.
Potential buyers will be able to post their reactions to the products on offer using various icons, and to ask questions through a collective chat visible to the sales hosts. A ‘buy’ button will enable buyers to make their purchase without having to quit the video session. The rest of the purchasing process will be managed in the same way as on Ebay itself.
Live shopping is a market that could be worth close to $500 billion in the current fiscal year, according to analytics firm Emarketer, which pointed out that the practice is still heavily concentrated in China and Asia. But with Facebook, Amazon, Tik Tok, Twitter and Pinterest having increasingly ambitious plans for live shopping, its popularity in the West could soon catch up with Asia’s, as repeated lockdowns have made people much more inclined to watch live-streamed videos online. In Europe, the fashion and luxury sectors are especially interested in live shopping (you can read our article here).
In fiscal 2021, Ebay generated a revenue of $10.4 billion (€9.84 billion), equivalent to a 17% increase, while the marketplace’s sales volume rose by 3% to $87.4 billion. The group has recently acquired digital shoe authentication specialist Sneaker Con, which operates in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. In April, Ebay announced it is going to commercialise defective products by major apparel brands.
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