eBay is beta testing its shopbot, so how is it?



eBay unveiled its shopbot technology almost two months ago (Oct 18 to be exact). Of course, it is a beta version and naturally embedded in Facebook's Messenger app. As eBay admitted, it has plenty of features and functions still in development. The Beta version also serves the purpose of collecting user feedback, and "train" the shopbot to better interpret human intention thus offer better shopping experience.

 When at launch, the "bot" can only accept dialogues about six product categories: electronics, fashion, health & beauty, home & garden, toys & hobbies, and sporting goods.

 Though eBay claims that the shopbot is backed by artificial intelligence, it is clear the machine-learning algorithms are built on a decision-tree type of structure through which the bot guides a shopper to narrow down his choices until confirming what he wants. This linear conversational pattern doesn't sound fun or engaging and it may even kill the fun when people can browse selections and "discover" new things of interest.

 Another great idea by eBay is to use photo in a chat session to help find the right products. imagine you can link your Pinterest account with the eBay bot and by recognizing products on the photos, the bot can initiate a chat session when the products become available. Unfortunately, according to this Techcrunch article, the photo match function is also a hit-or-miss experience. Bummer!

 Looks like a true shopbot experience is at least a few months away. eBay is mute about shopbot's performance during the Black Friday shopping weekend. Maybe after the Christmas, we will hear more about it. Let's hope it is good news. Or maybe IBM Watson can help?

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