eBay is launching a new “streaming as a service” pilot program that connects sellers with livestream hosts, allowing them to participate in Live commerce without having to host the sessions themselves.
eBay Live fashion business development leader Emma Munguia said during a recent webinar:
“We do have a pilot program that we are launching more fully in the next six to eight weeks for host matching and ‘streaming as a service’ partners… so even if you feel like ‘I don’t have the personality for this’ or ‘we’re a small team,’ don’t let that stop you from investigating. We have solutions that can help make that more feasible.”
I actually had a similar idea a few years ago, around the time that I gave a speech at a conference about how live streaming commerce was coming to the U.S. in a big way. (I nailed that prediction.) My idea was to build a studio that offered white label 24/7 live streaming with in-house hosts. eBay's execution is even better, serving as a middleman between merchants and established hosts, as opposed to offering the service through their own studio.
eBay Live has been available in the U.S. for almost four years and in the U.K. for two years, but the company has just recently begun expanding into new categories, geographies, and streaming offerings to better compete against platforms like Whatnot and TikTok.
Liz Morton of Value Added Resource wrote:
“The move signals eBay is not just investing in Live, it’s actively working to remove barriers that have slowed seller adoption. But it also raises a bigger question: is eBay solving a participation problem, or trying to push more sellers into a format many aren’t convinced fits their business?”
Morton notes that some sellers feel shut out by the selective application process, while others simply have no desire to participate in livestream selling and worry that their listings could lose visibility if eBay continues to prioritize Live on its homepage, search, and ads.
Details about the service, including how much it will cost, have not been provided yet. Nor did eBay specify whether it would exclusively be matching sellers with “human” hosts, leaving the door open for digital avatars to do livestreaming.