Here’s Why eBay Is Acquiring SalesPredict?

July 13th, 2016 by Trefis Team
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Continuing its acquisition spree, eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) recently announced that it is acquiring SalesPredict, an Israel-based analytics company with the technology to predict consumer buying behavior and sales conversion.  The acquisition is aimed at bolstering its structured data capablity as the company works towards building the world’s most comprehensive product catalog and pricing guide. As eBay works on its transformation program to improve its platform for buyers and sellers, the company is using several technological tools to reach this goal. SalesPredict’s expertise in predictive analytics and machine learning will enable eBay’s buyers to better understand the price differentiating attributes of its products. For the benefit of its sellers, eBay can use this expertise to build predictive models that can define the probability of selling a given product at a given price over a period of time. We believe a more structured product catalog with advanced intelligent features can enhance the buyer experience on eBay and providing data around probability of sales conversion at a given price will do the same for sellers on its platform. The acquisition of SalesPredict enables the company to meet its goal of an improved buyer and seller experience on its platform.

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Creating Better Product Experiences

One of the key goals of eBay’s transformation is to create better product experiences for buyers and sellers and the company is taking several initiatives to meet this target. Through the machine learning technology of SalesPredict, eBay can use artificial intelligence to “suggest products” to buyers based on their browsing history, creating a better shopping experience. While this technology is critical in the current e-commerce arena, eBay has made a smart move to accelerate the pace of development through the acquisition mode rather than developing it in-house. Earlier this year, the company had acquired Sweden based Expertmaker, another artificial intelligence company that enabled it to improve product cataloging on its platform. We believe this acquisition-based strategy to accelerate the pace of technological developments to enhance user experience on its platform should boost eBay’s revenues in future.

Earlier this year eBay started working on a turnaround plan to regain its lost market share. A broader range of merchandise, better branding and a simple yet effective platform for buyers and sellers were the key pillars of this plan. Through its recent acquisitions, eBay has improved its platform significantly this year with better product cataloging, fast and effective search technology, and predictive conversion analytics for sellers. We believe these initiatives will start showing results soon and reflect themselves in the company’s top line in the coming quarters.

 

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