eBay is looking to entice users of Snupps, an application that allows for cataloging and social sharing of one’s belongings, to monetize their unwanted items through seamless integration.

Users will now see conspicuous “list to eBay” and “buy from eBay” features on the top edge of their screens. The app, which has not gained the kind of explosive traction that many in tech media believed it would when debuted to hosannas in 2014, nonetheless seems like an ideal place for eBay to integrate its APIs.

“I don’t believe that eBay is attempting to compete with these highly targeted fashion trend service apps, per se,” said Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis. “The ability to link quickly to eBay to sell products of such a range of goods matches well with eBay’s basic strategy: sell almost anything.

“This partnership just helps a Snupps user do it more efficiently, and adds to the eBay base of users.”

Snupps
As if straight out of a consumerist fever dream, Snupps allows users to organize, share and connect with others around the things they own: sneaker collections, unique collectibles, personal inventory, etc. Users take photos of things that they own, and then list them on virtual “shelves,” which are in turn organized into inventories that can be shared publicly.

Now, through an integration with eBay’s APIs, users can seamlessly sell to eBay’s 167 million active buyers and buy other users’ listed items through eBay’s ecommerce infrastructure.

Once Snupps users link their eBay accounts, they can put up their items for sale through listing information necessary to sell on eBay, including item condition and choosing a shipping service.

The integration essentially allows for the monetization of potentially every product on Snupps through ecommerce resale. It is also a move that could potentially disrupt the nature of the app — the allure of ecommerce generally results in transactions taking precedence on social apps over time with the only exceptions being large social apps with good ad revenue, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Another significant piece of the puzzle will be whether eBay will want to corner a specific subset of the reselling market through this partnership, or if it wants to encourage Snupps users to catalog a more diverse selection of products on the app. Sites such as Grailed already have a firm hold on certain kinds of ecommerce — in Grailed’s case luxury menswear — but eBay will have the most success if it can successfully peddle what is most popular on Snupps.

Social commerce
Partnerships such as the one between eBay and Snupps are part of an overall trend that is shifting a portion of a product’s monetary value to the consumer.

eBay recently addressed luxury consumers especially worried about suspicious activity when shopping online through a new program in which sellers can opt in to have their products certified as authentic by professionals (see story).

Many of these grey market purchases are being facilitated with advancements in mobile banking, which is unsettling news to major banks losing business to early players such as Venmo. Last year, a collection of the biggest names in American banking, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo all partnered to add integration with a new mobile payments network called Zelle to compete with PayPal’s stalwart product (see story).

“In the beginning it most likely makes sense to keep (eBay and Snupps) separate,” Ms. Troutman said. “Keep in mind, you have to be an eBay member to list through the Snup’s app, and those rankings and ratings, service, etc. do live on that site.

“If all goes well with expectations on eBay’s side of this, who knows; there may be an acquisition in the future, and that would make integration of infrastructure support a moot point.”