EBay Gets Into Home Decor

There are many things one might think about when hearing the word “eBay” — auctions, collectables, the best place to find Happy Meal toys cataloged over the last 30 or so years — at this particular juncture, high-end furniture is probably not appearing on all that many people’s lists.

But, as eBay has spent much of 2016 demonstrating, it is rather committed to changing those internal lists.

And, as such, eBay kicked off this week with the announcement that it has launched a new site dedicated to furniture and other home wares call eBay Collective.  Though it sounds a bit like eBay has opened a new digital commerce platform for communists, the site in fact takes advantage of the recently announced acquisition of visual search engine Corrigon, and makes it easier for consumers to both find and visualize potential purchases.

For example, eBay Collective includes a “Shop the Room” feature that allows online shoppers to hover over an image of a fully designed space and then search across eBay inventory to surface items that are close matches to that portion of the image. Corrigon has been on the scene since 2008, and its technology powers the visual search component of eBay collective.

EBay Collective is theoretically designed to appeal to a high-end crowd looking for unique items, antiques, contemporary design, fine art and more.  The site launches with 21 dealers on board who had been specifically invited to participate by eBay. Listings include things like a rare Andy Warhol signed screenprint, a pair of Gio Ponti Armchairs (Italy, c. 1964), and a Mies van der Rohe Chaise Lounge in original leather (c. 1980), for example.

The company is also syndicating content from Architectural Digest and Archdigest.com to further fill the site with information about decorating, shopping and other industry events.

The service also comes out of the box with a “white-glove” managed shipping service for items on eBay Collective, which offers flat rates on continental U.S. freight to simplify the transaction process, it says.