eBay

forgottenape · ‎08-18-2025

sounds a lot like hey we dont need google search were ebay

dont make the same mistake with ai agents please dont

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-18-2025

@forgottenape You might want to include a link to the article you are referencing.

doc-holmes · ‎08-18-2025

I don't understand.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-18-2025

@doc-holmes

I am guessing this is a reference to:

https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2025/8/1755187432.html

eBay Crafts an 'AI Defensibility' Strategy

If so, I suspect it is also a failure on the OP's part to understand exactly what agentic AI is and why it might pose both a threat and opportunity for ebay.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-18-2025

My somewhat simplified version of what the job description is emphasizing:

Agentic AI will mean more shoppers will begin their searches with an agentic AI tool (off ebay) and ebay wants to do 2 things:

1. ebay wants to make sure their listings and content show up in the Agentic AI response. Agentic AI is a bit like Google Shopping on steroids. Remember when ebay acknowledged that the real reason they wanted us to use white backgrounds is because Google Shopping wanted it? This is similar. Pretty much every site is now trying to figure out how to ensure that Agentic AI won't ignore them. I think Ina Steiner's title choice is not the best, as it implies ebay wants to defend against being seen in Agentic AI results. No, ebay WANTS to be there. That is probably one reason ebay is going to automated positive feedback for sellers: higher numbers will likely be seen as better "trust signals" for agentic AI, which will help ebay show up in results.

2. But....what every site is concerned about these days...if people are getting ALL their answers from Agentic AI, what reason will they have to come directly to my site? If you look at some of what ebay is doing through the prism of Agentic AI, some things make more sense: LIvestreaming is an experience...for some buyers, that's a good reason to come directly to ebay. I expect to see ebay doing more with OG auctions as well. And, as Ina correctly notes, we might see ebay bring back stuff similar to things they tried in the past (but, in typical ebay fashion ,launched and then neglected) But stuff like store blogs? Or user generated content about collecting this or that (produced by knowledgeable sellers)? I could see ebay finally trying stuff like that.

Back when Jamie was being asked about ebay's lack of major marketing campaigns, his answer was often something like: Over 80% of our traffic is organic (ie, unlike many sites, we don't need to pay a ton to get most of our traffic). What he neglected to mention is, it wasn't that many years ago that the number was over 90%. And now, with the rise of agentic AI, that number is likely to decline further, and perhaps rapidly, if ebay doesn't find ways to draw buyers directly to the site.

So, when you see ebay making changes, some will just be regular changes, but I'll be asking myself: Is this a response to Agentic AI? Because some will be, for sure.

valueaddedresource · ‎08-18-2025

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques the other thing Jamie often forgets to mention is he has no idea what "organic" actually means when speaking about Google traffic and how it is different from "direct"....or he very much knows those things are not the same and purposely conflates them hoping investors don't know it.

When you look at the context in which he usually refers to "organic" traffic it's quite clear it's not just people searching and navigating to eBay through Google or other search engines, he is also lumping in any time someone just types ebay.com in their browser address bar or navigates to the site from a bookmarked link (both of which would be examples of "direct" traffic, not "organic."

And of course we can all surmise a decent amount of that direct traffic is from sellers accessing the site to engage in various business related activities, which again is a very different thing from shoppers with intent to make purchases "organically" landing on the site.

That's not to say eBay doesn't also maybe do well in actual organic traffic too, but I don't think it's nearly as well as Jamie presents and I would definitely love to see what the real number is.

hartungcards · ‎08-18-2025

You lost me at, "sounds a lot like hey we dont need google search were ebay

dont make the same mistake with ai agents please dont"

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-18-2025

@valueaddedresource I agree that the number might be 80% or it might be 40%, Jamie isn't going to be particularly candid about this LOL

But the point is---and this isn't just ebay, this is pretty much every site that recognizes what is going on in the tech world---the number of shoppers coming directly to ebay (or etsy, or even Amazon) is likely to decline, perhaps rapidly, because of Agentic AI. ebay is absolutely right to be worried about this trend and to be proactive.

@doc-holmes I suggest watching this video from ebay Open:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjex2Q3CuM4&list=PLRjGZp9Hk7D5Nbn5xZw99kXfNwscVOVE8&index=14

Starting at 4:40 and going through at least 10:48. What Pete refers to as "Conversational search" is a type of agentic AI, and ebay might eventually deploy that here, but sites like Google are employing it already, with the result that shoppers will see less reason to go to one particular shopping site when they feel the AI Agent can get them their answer faster.

I remember when many people believe Google Shopping would destroy ebay. Didn't happen, but it certainly posed challenges. And Agentic AI is Google Shopping on steroids.

Keep in mind, sites like ebay are happy to get a sale because Google Shopping showed an ebay item.But they would prefer the shopper come to ebay and look around and maybe buy more, or maybe add some things to his watch list etc.

tobaccocardyahoo · ‎08-18-2025

My sales are better on days when my external views are up. Not surprising. Many of my items are unlikely to be available for sale on any site, and Google, Bing or another general search engine are likely to be the first place some buyers begin their shopping.

I have low hopes for AI shopping to yield better results when I buy than search engines will, since there is no public information available to train it to determine which sellers are trustworthy, and which listings are total rubbish.

My experience with using AI includes many responses which are down right wrong due to bad information on the internet used to train the AI. I can often identify exactly what website was the source of the wrong information, having read it and rejected it before.

This new Ebay position will probably make heavy use of bull <bleep> artists on social media, who have followings who do not care about truth or accuracy.

The successful applicant will probably be loathsome and detestable like their counterparts on other sites.

valueaddedresource · ‎08-18-2025

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
@valueaddedresource I agree that the number might be 80% or it might be 40%, Jamie isn't going to be particularly candid about this LOL

But the point is---and this isn't just ebay, this is pretty much every site that recognizes what is going on in the tech world---the number of shoppers coming directly to ebay (or etsy, or even Amazon) is likely to decline, perhaps rapidly, because of Agentic AI. ebay is absolutely right to be worried about this trend and to be proactive.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques sorry but I'm squarely in the "not buying all the hype" camp on this one. 😂

Could that happen at some point in the future? Sure

Are sites which primarily serve up content/information (blogs, news sites etc.) already seeing noticeable traffic being leached away by AI in stand alone tools/apps or baked right into the top of Google search results making it no longer necessary to click through to the actual site to view the info? Sure - though some maybe more than others, due to a variety of factors.

But the "agentic AI" hype the tech bros are currently selling? I honestly do not believe the vast majority of the general online shopping population is anywhere near ready to give AI access to their credit card numbers and allow it to just do the shopping for them with no "human" traffic to the site needed.

First of all, the technology really isn't "there" yet - every actual "review" of trying to use an AI agent to purchase something I've seen from real average people (not AI "experts" or those who have obvious bias like working for the companies making the AI) basically says something to the effect of "it took 4 hours to do something I could have done in 5 minutes, only got half of what I asked it to do right, and failed to actually complete the purchase because the part where it was supposed to make the payment with my CC didn't work."

And even if/when it eventually gets to the point where it really can do all the "magical" things, I still believe much of the general population is highly skeptical and a long way from mass adoption of that kind of AI - and I'm not alone in that.

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/04/03/how-the-us-public-and-ai-experts-view-artificial-int...

As with most things, those within a bubble have a very different view than those outside and it can be easy to think something is more important than it really is in the big scheme if you're only looking at it from the inside.

And unfortunately the hype is a self replicating virus - especially amongst publicly traded companies who believe they have to show they are concerned about/working on the same things as competitors simply so that investors don't ask them why they aren't - but that doesn't necessarily make any of it really true. 😂

I'm not saying it won't ever happen or that eBay won't at some point maybe need to really contend with how to compete in the "agentic AI wars" but....we're definitely not there yet imo and there are much higher priority and more impactful things eBay could and should be devoting time, energy, resource and money to, again imo.

m60driver · ‎08-18-2025

I am impressed that some folks were able to parse the OP's post. But then again Steiner's article and the quotes from Ebay are also hard for me to parse. Agentic AI will be a thing but it is still just a little bit over the horizon for most usages. I would not want to give my "agent" my payment details until there is a new generation of security tools.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-18-2025

@valueaddedresource I share some of the AI skepticism.

So, yes, color me skeptical, but also color me:

We've seen many examples of just how rapidly tech changes things. Rewatch the clip...note the huge increase in visual search that Google has seen just in the past few years. Companies that aren't considering both the potential benefits and the potential downsides of Agentic AI might very well find themselves in trouble.

Pete appears to be saying that ebay itself will probably start shifting to their own version of "conversational search" within ebay. And here, of course, most buyers already have a payment method on file and on most fixed price items ebay already has the ability to charge at time of purchase.

So, while I agree that ebay has plenty of other challenges to focus on, I also believe they'd be foolish to ignore this one.

valueaddedresource · ‎08-18-2025

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
@valueaddedresource I share some of the AI skepticism.

So, yes, color me skeptical, but also color me:

We've seen many examples of just how rapidly tech changes things. Rewatch the clip...note the huge increase in visual search that Google has seen just in the past few years. Companies that aren't considering both the potential benefits and the potential downsides of Agentic AI might very well find themselves in trouble.

Pete appears to be saying that ebay itself will probably start shifting to their own version of "conversational search" within ebay. And here, of course, most buyers already have a payment method on file and on most fixed price items ebay already has the ability to charge at time of purchase.

So, while I agree that ebay has plenty of other challenges to focus on, I also believe they'd be foolish to ignore this one.

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques yeah...that conversational search he's talking about is just this:

https://innovation.ebayinc.com/stories/ebay-uses-agentic-ai-to-supercharge-personalized-ecommerce/

And aside from that obviously mocked up video and buzzword filled press release, I've yet to see anyone say they've seen it in the wild.

If history with their AI tools is any indicator, that means we're likely at least 1-2 years away from it actually being available and when it does finally roll out, it will likely not work nearly as well as the mock up.

And no matter how much they want to apply the newest hot buzzword to it, that's not really "agentic" it's just conversational search - there's still nothing about it that would allow the AI to search, select, and complete a transaction without direct human user involvement.

Again, I'm not buying it, and honestly I'm not sure I believe eBay is really even actually buying it nearly as much as their PR would have people believe - they're just concerned with the outward appearance of keeping up with the competition and shareholder expectations.

my-cottage-books-and-antiques · ‎08-18-2025

I think when people are talking about agentic AI they are basically saying it will eventually get to the point where the buyer actually buys via the agent. But I think a tool can be agentic AI without the purchase. This isn't simply about whether the purchase is made through the agent. It's about whether buyers start to use agentic AI tools instead of sites like ebay or etsy. Even if they search with the agent and then go to ebay's checkout to pay, there are issues for ebay (and any site). So, yes, the payment aspect might still be a ways down the road.

But, well, look at my "That's SO ebay" meme. In the past, I probably would have gone to Canva to create something like that. Or maybe even a Photoshop type site. But that took literally seconds with a few instructions ---conversational---on Chat GPT. So, sites like Canva need to ensure that they have services that somehow go above and beyond what ChatGPT can do for me.

Now, ebay being ebay, they might screw this up big time. BUT...they might also end up improving the site because they will need to give buyers more reason to come here (and spend some time here). What those reasons will be I don't know. But waiting a few years to think about it would be dangerously short sighted in my opinion.

But we can agree to disagree on this, while agreeing that there are plenty of other things ebay should also be focusing on right now.