How to leverage eBay’s generative AI tool, ChatGPT and more
Laura Tien
February 04, 2024
In the ever-evolving e-commerce marketplace landscape, eBay’s generative AI (artificial intelligence) tool takes center stage. This article will give an overview of how the tool works, how it compares to ChatGPT as well as key guidelines to follow when adopting AI in your business. Finally, we’ll run you through additional automation tools for eBay sellers.
Understanding eBay’s generative AI tool
eBay announced a ‘magical’ listing tool in recent months in their bid to keep up with the boom in AI. The tool has been designed to streamline the process of listing products for sellers. eBay’s AI has been trained by over two decades of data and customer behavior insights. It has also integrated Azure’s OpenAI technologies, the same technology behind ChatGPT, with their own.
The tool can analyze images, titles and categories to generate a compelling product description. Based on the analysis, eBay can also suggest a listing price and shipping cost. Not only does the AI tool make it easier for sellers to create a competitive listing, it makes it easier for buyers to access detailed information.
eBay’s generative AI tool will be particularly useful for those looking to buy and sell rare or collectible items. For example, it will be able to identify trading cards with specific details about the manufacturer, set, league/team, year and more.
How eBay sellers can use ChatGPT
If you do external marketing for your eBay business, ChatGPT can help to fill some gaps that eBay’s own AI tool has. For example, ChatGPT will be able to help you draft responses to customer inquiries and generate email campaigns. This will help with maintaining effective communication and consistent branding.
Similarly, if you’re creating external content such as blog posts, articles or social media posts, ChatGPT can help with these as well. Though ChatGPT would have less information about your business compared to eBay’s own tool, ChatGPT can learn based on the inputs you give. Though you can’t rely entirely on ChatGPT, it’s useful to help speed up tasks.
Guidelines for using AI
If you’re planning on adopting AI into your eBay business, it’s important to use it in a responsible and ethical manner. While AI models can produce human-like content, they don’t have the same nuanced judgment than a real human has. Make sure you review any output, update any errors and make sure to edit it based on your own voice.
On a similar note, AI models will always hold some inherent biases. Be aware of the potential limitations of AI-generated content. Employ your own critical thinking and always consider any output as a starting point rather than a final product.
More automation tools for eBay sellers
On a similar note, there are a range of other AI and automation tools that eBay sellers can adopt to speed up internal processes. This ranges from customer service automation to accounting and bookkeeping automation.
For example, eDesk is a popular AI-powered customer service software that’s popular with eBay sellers. It can suggest responses based on pre-formatted templates and automatically include personalization snippets such as customer name, product details and more. Additionally, it can save you time by summarizing customer messages so that you can digest messages faster.
Finally, eBay sellers should consider using an Amaka accounting integration such as eBay + Xero, eBay + QuickBooks Online or eBay + MYOB. These automatically sync orders and settlements into a summarized invoice on a daily basis. Categories, eBay fees, shipping fees and more are all accounted for. Plus, the integration automatically matches sales to the bank feed for fast-tracked bank reconciliation, saving you dozens of hours a month.
The future of AI in e-commerce according to eBay
eBay has employed their first Chief AI Officer, Nitzan Mekel-Bobrov, to oversee how AI can be used to innovate the experience for both buyers and sellers. He believes that e-commerce will see a massive shift over the next three to five years as a result of AI.
These shifts are expected to occur over three phases. We’re already seeing the first phase with widespread natural-language models and shopping assistants. In the second phase, Mekel-Bobrov is anticipating e-commerce to become omnipresent. Instead of being a destination such as a site or app, you’ll start being able to shop wherever you are on the web.
Finally, the third phase will see AI be able to complete more complex and multi-step tasks. Mekel-Bobrov explains, “This could mean acting on behalf of sellers to reach their financial goals, or on behalf of buyers to complete certain shopping missions, like purchasing everything they need for a trip within a certain time frame and budget.”
Key takeaways on AI for eBay sellers
Ultimately, leveraging AI as an eBay seller can help your business become more efficient. However, it’s important to consider how to use AI responsibly to avoid misuse or misleading information. Finally, look into an array of AI and automation tools to figure out what’s most relevant for your unique situation.