eBay Quietly Pauses AI Video Creation For Social Media Sharing, Reconsiders Seller Marketing Tools
eBay has quietly paused AI video creation tool for social media sharing as they re-evaluate marketing tools for sellers.
The generative AI feature was introduced in May, helping sellers turn item images from their listings into YouTube & TikTok ready videos for social sharing.
Liz Morton
eBay offered two templates to choose from - lighting effect (which applies a lighting/shadow filter over your static images to create a slight illusion of movement) or product showcase (which is basically just a slideshow of your static product images).
Early feedback from sellers expressed disappointment in limitations of the tool (no ability to edit text overlays) as well as frustration with receiving errors or having video creation take an agonizingly long 3 minutes to produce a 15 second video clip.
Some sellers, like YouTuber Justin Resells questioned who even asked for the feature, chalking it up as yet another AI feature nobody really wanted that wasn't ready for primetime and doesn't live up to the hype.
But despite initial seller skepticism, eBay kept the feature active and some sellers say they've been seeing success in driving interest and traffic for social media with the videos - until sometime last week when it suddenly stopped working without any explanation besides a vague error message that says "no videos found for your listings."
One such seller posted in the eBay community, trying to determine if the tool was just experiencing a technical issue or if it had been intentionally removed.
Social - AI Generated Video Feature Using Listing Images Missing
The feature to create an AI-generated video using listing images for sharing on social media sites is missing.
I first noticed it missing about 1 week ago. Is this a technical issue, or has the feature been intentionally removed? I have reported the issue using the ? on the Social page.
eBay community staff reached out to the Product team on the seller's behalf and confirmed that the feature has been "paused" as the company reconsiders the best way to help sellers with social media marketing.
Devon@eBay said:
Here is what the Product team had to share:
“The Generative AI Video feature has been paused for now, as eBay considers the best possible tools to help sellers succeed with their social marketing goals.”
Hopefully, the Product team will also consider posting that message on the actual Social Sharing page as it would be far more helpful than the current "no videos found" error message.
Beyond that, if eBay is looking for the best possible tools to help sellers succeed with their social marketing goals - rather than stuffing more AI into every part of the user experience, I'd highly recommend eBay revisit the discounted Final Value Fee social sharing incentive that was promised in 2021 and never delivered.
Liz Morton
What did you think of eBay's now paused generative AI video tool for social sharing? Would you like to see it come back or is there something else that would help you succeed with your social marketing goals? Let us know in the comments below!
