If you've ever sold anything on eBay, you're likely familiar with how time-consuming the process can be. In addition to photographing and listing your item, there's the hassle of having to package it up and ship it out. eBay has addressed this in the past through various programs but they'll cost you.
The company's latest solution, however, takes a slightly different approach.
eBay has tapped Google's ARCore platform to power a new augmented reality solution that makes it easy to select the correct sized box to ship your item.
Found inside the eBay app, the new feature allows sellers to place a virtual box over their sold item and move the box around the item for a complete view of how it fits inside the box. It works with USPS flat rate boxes and according to eBay, is designed to save time that would otherwise be wasted picking out various sized boxes at the post office or packaging an item.
James Meeks, Head of Mobile at eBay, said that by coupling Google's ARCore platform with premiere AR technology built at eBay, they are continuing to make the selling experience more seamless.
To get started, simply open the eBay app, tap "Selling" and scroll down to the AR feature.
eBay says the feature was conceived by employees during eBay Hack Week, a company-wide competition that challenges its technologists to innovate in the e-commerce space. Such competitions are commonplace among technology companies - Netflix's hack day is a well-known example.
It's free to use and yeah, it's not hard to envision how this could save sellers valuable time. The only requisites, of course, are that you have a compatible Android device and are alright with shipping via USPS' flat rate service.