Ebay将让在线购物体验更愉快

今年Ebay将启动新的增强现实功能，让在线购物和出售商品更有趣，还在研究卖家信贷项目，鼓励卖家将资金留在平台上。

总部位于加州圣何塞 Ebay表示，正研究一套增强现实工具。举例来说，汽车爱好者购买之前就可以通过工具看到新车轮实际装上的效果。另一种应用场景是，卖家可以用箱子的影像与商品比对，从而选择尺寸合适的箱子。

刚过去的假日购物季里Ebay业绩亮眼，平台上聚集了1.7亿买家，商品总销售额增长了10%，达到244亿美元。这是判断Ebay在线商城商品和票务销售情况的关键指标。

不久前，在旧金山一场高盛赞助的科技论坛上，Ebay首席执行官戴文·维尼格表示，购物者喜欢在Ebay购买特惠商品，送货速度快不是影响购物决策的唯一因素。维尼格努力说服投资者的是，即便亚马逊占据绝对优势，Ebay也还有发展空间，因为某些品类能做到一小时送货。

“很多人说电商其实关键就一点：物流。其实不对，”维尼格表示。“成本、便利和存货管理都很重要。”

维尼格预计，由于此前存在产能过剩，互联网又能更迅速打通买家与商品，零售业整合和实体店倒闭情况还会继续。他表示，这一趋势对Ebay来说是新机会，Ebay可以跟实体零售店合作，协助提升在线销售。

维尼格表示，Ebay打算增加服饰和家居商品来吸引更多年轻人和女性，平衡消费者人群分布。他表示，此前上Ebay购物的以年级较大的男性居多。

“品牌迁移需要数年，不是几个季度能完成的，”维尼格说。

Ebay负责买家体验的副总裁莫汗·帕特表示，公司保持增长的核心策略包括，利用人工智能和数据实现个性化主页，向用户介绍增强现实工具等功能以提升购物体验等。莫汗称，目标是拓展用户群，不仅要囊括购物目标明确的用户，还要吸引喜欢四处逛挑选喜爱商品的用户。

“个性化的目标是，帮助用户买到之前不知道自己需要的东西，”他表示。

两周前，Ebay宣布，已聘请数据科学家简·彼得逊负责人工智能部门，为网站开发新的购物功能。彼得逊之前在社交媒体平台Twitter的担任数据科学部门副总裁。

帕特称，Ebay还在考虑为卖家提供信贷服务，鼓励卖家用在Ebay收到的资金购买其他商品。他表示，由于Ebay与PayPal保持长期合作关系，Ebay已转型成为新的支付提供商，所以能开展这项业务。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审稿：夏林

EBay Inc. will roll out new augmented reality features this year to make buying and selling goods on the website more engaging, and is exploring a credit program for sellers to encourage them to keep their money on the platform.

The San Jose, California-based marketplace said it’s working on an AR kit that, for example, will let car enthusiasts see how the images of new wheels would look on their vehicles before making a purchase. Another feature will help sellers select the correct box size for an item by overlaying an image of the box on the merchandise.

EBay had a strong holiday quarter with 170 million buyers on the platform and a 10 percent increase in gross merchandise volume to $24.4 billion. That is a key metric of the value of all goods and tickets sold on the company’s marketplaces.

Shoppers look to EBay for unique items at good prices and quick delivery is not the only factor that influences their spending decisions, Chief Executive Officer Devin Wenig said Tuesday in San Francisco at a technology conference sponsored by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Wenig sought to convince investors there is room for EBay in a market dominated by Amazon.com Inc., which offers delivery of some items in as little as an hour.

“A lot of people say e-commerce is about one thing: logistics. That’s not true,” Wenig said. “Cost, convenience and the inventory itself matters a lot as well.”

Wenig predicted retail consolidation and brick-and-mortar store closures will continue due to overcapacity created before the internet connected buyers with the merchandise they want. This trend will open new opportunities for EBay to become partners with physical retailers looking to enhance their online presence, he said.

The marketplace plans to add more apparel and home goods, which is helping to balance its customer base by attracting younger shoppers and women, Wenig said. EBay has traditionally skewed toward older men, he said.

“Moving a brand takes years. It doesn’t take quarters,’ Wenig said.

EBay’s key strategies to maintain growth include improving the way artificial intelligence and data are used to personalize what visitors see on the home page and introducing features such as the AR tools to make online shopping more fun, Mohan Patt, EBay’s vice president of buyer experiences, said in an interview. The goal is to expand EBay’s customer reach beyond mission-shoppers who know precisely what they want to enthusiasts in different categories seeking inspiration, Patt said.

“Personalization is all about getting you to buy things you didn’t know you wanted,” he said.

EBay announced Tuesday that it hired data scientist Jan Pedersen to run its artificial intelligence efforts that will bring new shopping experiences to the marketplace. Pedersen most recently worked as vice president of data science at social media platform Twitter Inc.

The company also is considering a program to give sellers credits to entice them to use the money they make on EBay to buy additional items on the marketplace, Patt said. That feature will become possible as EBay transitions to a new payment provider after its relationship with long-time partner PayPal Holdings Inc., he said.