If you have been selling your stuffs on eBay, you already know the hassle of packaging the right way. Sometimes it is far more complicated than the real business! One may even come across situations where it feels just like Mr. Beans trying to pack his bigger clothes in a toy-suitcase and finally screws up everything! But eBay has just introduced an incredible tool for you to overcome your ever-frustrating problem!
Yes, it has just come up with its new AR-powered feature that will make it super simple for the sellers to decide which box will be the best for shipping their product items to the buyers.
Depending upon the product type, one has to decide on the most suitable packaging. This has always been important for the sellers as nobody would like their items getting damaged on the way. Nor will anyone like to end up investing in wrong sized boxes. These issues are higher when you are shipping something for the first time or when it is completely a new item and you have no idea what should the dimensions of your packaging be. With this new feature, all these hassles and confusions will now almost come to an end.
eBay announces that the technology will work with a wide product range and will include almost everything starting from kitchenware, gift items & show pieces, to backpacks and automotive parts. The main aim of the feature is to save users’ time by helping them choose accurate USPS Flat Rate shipping boxes for packaging their items.
This technology will provide with what you can call a Real-time Calculations for packaging materials and the shipping costs. This will indeed prove a remarkable feature as one will not have to spend hours rushing to the local post offices looking for right-sized packaging boxes. And if you have ever sold things online, you already know that choosing a correct sized packaging box is no less than an Olympic challenge! Sometimes you end up buying slightly large or slightly small box and then either you waste your money buying more boxes or spend hours to fix up your items in wrong boxes. This unwanted, completely detested struggle will now come to an end with this new technology.
So what exactly is it?
This feature is unique of its kind and is one of the firsts to work on Google’s brand new ARCore platform. However, as of present, it will work only on ARCore-enabled Android devices only.
If you are not already aware of what ARCore is, it is what Google brought out in competition with Apple’s ARKit. It first made its presence on the market in February and now it is available on hundreds or millions of Android devices with its latest 1.0 release. And almost all the leading Android based smartphones on the market such as Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Samsung Galaxy S8, S8+, Note 8, S7, S7 edge, ASUS Zenfone AR, LG V30, V30+(the Android O version), OnePlus 5 and so on come loaded with the technology.
How does it work?
For using this feature all you’ll have to do is to open the app (the eBay mobile app for Android) and simply tap on ‘Selling’ along with ‘Which Box?’ and rest will come to you as instructions from the app! It will ask you place your item on any non-reflective flat surface such a table or even your living room floor. Then you’ll have to ‘try on’ the virtual boxes around the item and this will allow you pick the right sized box. Of course, you’ll have the option to leave space for extra padding and inserts for fragile products.
The app will even let you change the angle to check the box from all sides and angles to make sure the box will fit well from all sides. In order to offer these unique options for checking angles and sides, to see which box fits well and how, the feature uses up concurrent odometry and mapping which lets it know the phone’s position and works on sensors for the movement and orientations.
Ebay built this AR Shipping feature during its annual hack week and is all set to bring up several other features this year. And the good news is, soon the feature will also be available on iOS devices! Though, it has not yet announced when, it is surely on its way!
