eBay turns to artificial intelligence to refine product searches

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "E-Commerce Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. The online marketplace has acquired AI company Expertmaker to enhance the way products display on eBay's pages, according to Internet Retailer. This purchase is part of eBay's structured data push for sellers, which utilizes eBay's standard way of categorizing and displaying products for sale on its marketplace. The use of structured data is not mandatory, but eBay has been strongly encouraging sellers to adopt it. As of the first quarter of 2016, 60% of listed items on eBay used the structured data rules, according to the company's earnings report.