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eBay plans for the future of commerce: more wearable integration and your own personal shopper

While outlining its plans for the future of retail, eBay has announced a new tea, within its Innovation and New Ventures group, aimed at cramming commerce interfaces into any device that's smart enough and preparing for the future of shopping. The team has already launched apps for both Samsung's Galaxy Gear and the Pebble, and while its next target is connected glass (like interactive touchscreen storefronts), according to TechCrunch, it has more up its sleeve than mere augmented reality parlor tricks. The team is working to fold in personalization, historical behavior and connected home sensors to make the shopping experience as smooth, swift (and dangerously easy) as possible, and it's calling it zero effort commerce (ZEC). According to the team head, Steve Yankovich, ZEC will anticipate what you're shopping for and sort out the rest for you.


"I have a friend who has a personal assistant who keeps track of his needs. His personal assistant replaces ceiling fan light bulbs, replaces shirts that she noted show wear, constantly fills the fridge, changes the wiper blades in cars, and on and on. In this person's world everything he needs and wants automatically happens. We can work towards building a virtual personal assistant... to do much the same thing but for all of us."