It may have taken several years, but people have become pretty comfortable with buying and selling items through online auctions. Â Sites like eBay, in conjunction with PayPal, have done a nice job of putting participants at ease. While still “buyer beware,” there are satisfaction surveys, customer feedback tools, and conflict resolution processes in place that provide a modicum of comfort when entering into a faceless transaction.
Yet, a certain amount of trepidation still exists when buying and selling expensive items such as cars or luxury goods. Â Pictures help to tell part of the story, but the question always lingers, “is that a real bag?” or “is that car really in the condition that the owner is representing?”
One obvious way to address these fears and uncertainties is to include a video player where people can post footage of both themselves and their products. But as far as we’ve seen, there has yet to be a serious push to include video content on auction sites. If you visit eBay, for example, you’ll see an interface that allows you to post pictures and descriptions, but there is no video player to be found.
That’s why we were happy to find that users of video sites have created their own solutions. YouTube has an online auction channel, YouAuction, that offers a way for sellers to showcase their goods in detail and in motion. Ebay users can then include the video link in their auction posts, giving the buyers a bit more assurance about the potentially risky purchase they’re about to make.
I’ve received several responses to my eBay bulletin about selling my car; and while I can’t attribute the success solely to the video, I have to believe it has helped my cause. YouAuction’s interface and channel itself are not altogether awe-inspiring, but its ability to get the word out about my auction video was certainly helpful. With such obvious benefits, why don’t more online auction sites out there include video as part of the interface (that means YOU, eBay)?
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I disagree that video auctions make sense in general. EBay said that their reason for buying Skype was to supplement auctions with voice – that was bad as an idea and expensive as a mistake. I think this approach might make more sense with single large ticket purchases, or in select settings like a Christie’s auction where the designers succeed in communicating some of the exclusive air of the auction room itself. But in general its a nice-to-have-but-will-not-pay-for for most consumers.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 am
Funny you should say that. I have spent the past 10 months developing an online (www.intheglo.com) system where sellers post a video of their item rather than pictures and descriptions for the exact purposes that you discuss in this post. I myself was selling on ebay last year when I stumbled upon this concept. I thought it would be so much quicker and easier to sell and actually pitch my items via video (think homemade infomercial) rather than trying to find the words to describe my black handbag. It seemed odd that no one was doing this already and so the lightbulb went off and this spring people all over will be able to buy and sell via video listing!
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Watch Ebay come on board with the concept once it’s proven itself… wouldn’t the biggest issue be space to store billions of vids if everyone chose to go this way… which I am sure is absolutely the way of the future.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:04 am
You ask if there is a video solution built with eBay in mind. I’m pleased to say there is. vzaar.com is an eBay Compatible Application that uses the eBay API so that sellers can quickly and easily add video to their eBay listings. We are based in London and two of us are ex eBay staff members of over 8 years experience combined.
We have been going for a year or so and now power over 100,000 video listings a month on eBay across a range of categories from motors and industrial equipment to musical instruments and jewellery. Although I certainly see its merits in high ticket items as mentioned above, many sellers who sell repeat items or who want to drive that all important “trust factor” are tending to use a generic “About Us” style video that presents the business in a positive, trusted light. See the videos on rotation on our homepage as some good examples of what is currently being used.
When an eBay seller wants to add video to their eBay listing they simply upload the video to our platform and we can then help them embed that straight into their listing with two clicks of a button. It’s that simple.
The next step for us is improved integration with eBay so that people can add video from within the eBay system (i.e My eBay or SYI) and believe me when I say we are working on that!
We also host and stream the video for the seller regardless of what website (eBay, your own site, blogs etc) that the video is placed on.
Thanks
Jamie
April 2nd, 2009 at 4:49 pm