Looking to give your listings an instant glow up? eBay is making it easier than ever with an AI-powered background enhancement tool that helps sellers seamlessly transform their product photos from everyday snapshots into professional grade imagery.
Background enhancement lets you remove a less-than-glamorous background from an existing photo using eBay’s background removal tool, leaving just the actual item you’re selling, and then place that item in a stylish new AI-generated backdrop chosen by you from a variety of scenes and vibes. Selling a sturdy pair of pre-loved hiking boots? Swap in a realistic rugged outdoor backdrop. For those collectable vintage action figures you’re listing, maybe try an elegantly minimal studio backdrop or a sleek-looking tabletop scene. It’s quick, creative, and part of the listing process on eBay’s mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Background enhancement is available to iOS app users in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, and will gradually roll out to Android over the coming months. eBay sellers have had the ability to automatically remove image backgrounds and replace them with a clean white background since the feature was added in 2020 and upgraded with significant improvements in 2023. Background enhancement builds on that functionality and takes it to the next level. It’s still in early roll-out as we continue to garner feedback and iterate to create the best experience for our customers.
Quality images are a key ingredient of a successful product listing, and result in a faster sale. But taking well-lit, professional-looking product photographs can be expensive, time-consuming, and cumbersome. Background enhancement makes it simple for sellers to create beautiful listings that reflect their brand and style, while giving buyers a more appealing, distraction-free look.
Background enhancement is the newest in a growing suite of eBay features that harness AI to simplify and enhance the listing and shopping experience. Last fall, the company released its popular “magical” listing tool, which millions of sellers have already used to automatically generate listing details, such as description text from a photo of the item they’re selling. Another new feature whips up AI-generated social media posts to save sellers time as they share and promote their listings on social media platforms.
“We are using AI to help our sellers accomplish their listings more seamlessly, faster, and with higher quality,” said VP of Seller Experience Xiaodi Zhang. “Our sellers’ time is valuable, and we want to ensure our tools allow them to meet their listing goals and drive more sales.”
eBay’s background enhancement feature is powered by open source deep learning, inpainting models (Stable Diffusion), paired with eBay’s vast amount of anonymous data and infrastructure. In the coming year, visual generation models will be fine-tuned based on the feedback loop of seller’s utilization.
Like eBay’s other AI-powered offerings, the background enhancement tool was built in close collaboration with eBay’s Responsible AI team to ensure that the technology was implemented in a fair and safe way, and to mitigate any unintended consequences. It was imperative to ensure that as the tool enhanced product photographs, it didn’t misrepresent items and their condition. User guidance was incorporated within the listing process to remind sellers to check for accuracy in the images they select, and to remind them to be transparent about the role of AI where appropriate.
