eBay once held a leading position in the early days of the internet economy, connecting buyers and sellers through its popular auction model. Today, the company is working to boost its market competitiveness by expanding its range of consumer products available for online shopping through the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies.
Around 10 years ago, as the growth of the online auction industry slowed down, eBay's revenue started to decline. Meanwhile, Amazon began to take over the non-auction sales market. In recent years, eBay has been trying to attract sellers of unique or niche products that are not commonly found on Amazon by offering more favorable terms. Steve Yankovich, eBay’s chief product architect, believes that VR and AR will be key to this transformation.
With AR technology, users can see computer-generated content overlaid onto real-world scenes when wearing AR glasses. Yankovich explained: "Imagine buying a pair of pants online. You have a pair of AR or mixed reality glasses. You stand in front of your usual mirror and can see yourself wearing the pants, just as if you were trying them on."
Yankovich thinks that as AR and VR devices become more widely adopted, companies like eBay will be able to sell products such as furniture, which many people are hesitant to buy online without seeing them in person. Moreover, these technologies could make shopping experiences more enjoyable, encouraging consumers to browse more online and generate more purchasing impulses.
Like its rival Amazon, eBay is also developing voice recognition technology. Yankovich hopes to use it as the main way shoppers interact with eBay. Based on speech recognition, eBay has created a tool called "eBay Assistant," though the exact release date hasn't been announced yet.
Saying “the future of retail is VR†isn’t just something eBay says. Walmart has long expressed similar views, and IKEA has already launched its own AR app using ARKit. Meanwhile, Chinese platforms like Taobao and JD.com have also embraced AR/VR technologies, integrating them into their apps.
While it may still be too early to tell, the adoption of VR and AR devices in the consumer market hasn’t met expectations yet. However, when one day VR becomes as common in households as the internet did, we'll know it's not too late for VR in retail. From another angle, if AR shopping and AR retail help promote the popularity of AR/VR in the consumer market, that would be great. But the key is that these technologies must provide real value and solve actual problems for shoppers.
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