Two years ago, eBay introduced ShopBot to Facebook, an artificial intelligence chatBot that could help consumers shop on eBay. It’s on Facebook Messenger and if you’ve got the messenger app installed on your smartphone (or use your computer) you can talk to the eBay ShopBot.
Now, news is out that ShopBot will cease taking eBay orders after the 6th of September, from no other source than ShopBot itself. (Jane Bell, the eBay Anorak consultant was first to spot the message).
eBay ShopBot features
ShopBot has three main features
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Chat
Ask ShopBot for a specific item. The more you chat, the more it will remember what you like.
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Browse
Check out hundreds of curated collections of what’s hot in fashion, tech, beauty and more.
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Upload
Snap a photo of an item you love and ShopBot will find it for you.
eBay ShopNOT
When talking to eBay ShopBot, or visiting the ShopBot page on eBay, a message is displayed saying “Time is running out. You only have through September 6th to shop with eBay ShopBot. After that, no more orders will be taken.”
In truth, the eBay mobile app is a much better search tool than eBay ShopBot. It’s easier to search, displays more search results and the image search is better. However the eBay mobile app only works for people who have downloaded and installed it (admittedly that’s a lot of people). eBay ShopBot works for anyone who has Facebook (although it has to be asked, how many people know of ShopBot – only 37k people have liked it).
Will you miss eBay ShopBot? It’s unlikely if you ever knew that someone placed an order through ShopBot, but did you ever buy from ShopBot yourself?
One Response
Never heard of it… must have been great for ebay not to have chanted it’s wonders. To be honest though the app isn’t exactly great. it is has too many flaws and is way behind the times. As a seller or buyer it doesn’t link well with the main desktop site, and the messaging part is beyond dire.
So nope i wont miss what i had no idea about…. and the app, well enough said!