eBay have launched a new iPhone app, eBay Exact. Buyers can use eBay Exact to order customised 3D printed items from three partners, MakerBot in Brooklyn USA, Sculpteo in Issy-les-Moulineaux France and Hot Pop Factory in Toronto Canada.
3D printing is the process of making a three-dimensional solid object “printing” successive layers of material on top of each other until the object is formed.
Customers can choose from roughly 20 items, ranging from technology accessories to jewellery and have them 3D printed in plastics, wood and metals. There’s an engraving feature to further customize your product and customers who choose to buy from Sculpteo can play around with a 360-degree preview image of the item they want to customize.
eBay Exact allows users to order products directly fon the app, pay with PayPal, and receive the item within 7 to 14 business days.
Introducing eBay Exact, Steve Yankovich, Vice President of Innovation and New Ventures for eBay said “Shoppers today not only want to buy items any time, anywhere through mobile devices, but they also want to be able to personalize their purchases. eBay Exact brings these two desires into one shopping experience“.
This is of course a beta program. Currently we don’t know how long the app will run for before eBay pull it and kill it/pull it and later relaunch an improved version/expand the product range/make an Android eBay Exact app (so that the millions of people with a proper smartphone can use it). When we hear we’ll let you know. In the mean time if you’re an iPhone user you can download eBay Exact directly from iTunes.
2 Responses
“so that the millions of people with a proper smartphone can use it”
Ooooh! Smartphone wars! 😉
This allows ordering of customisable goods using a smartphone. The fact that they are 3D printed is not particularly relevant.