Ahead of expectations in its fiscal Q1, eBay grew both revenue and gross merchandise volume, notching the online marketplace’s fourth consecutive quarter of GMV growth.
CEO Jamie Iannone acknowledged “significant developments around cross-border trade” on eBay’s Q1 earnings call with investors. He noted that since speaking to investors during the online marketplace’s Q4 earnings call, “tariffs and changes to certain customer requirements in the U.S. have created significant uncertainty for small businesses while concerns over escalating prices for imported goods have weighed on consumer confidence.”
On the technology end, eBay has replaced static browse pages with endless feeds, Iannone said. It organizes the feeds by theme or subcategory and includes dynamic visuals and interactive elements.
“These feeds progressively load content as users go down the page, and are flexible in accommodating varying content formats, such as autoplay video, curated compositions, eBay Live events, promotions and relevant eBay store funds,” he told investors.
In April, eBay announced a partnership with checkout.com to expand payments. Later that month, eBay and Klarna expanded a partnership to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) to U.S. consumers. Early results show average order values (AOVs) on eBay Klarna transactions are more than triple the market average, Iannone said.
EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
How tariffs affect eBay’s business
EBay’s SpeedPAK shipping program “manages much of the complexity of international shipping” for cross-border sellers, Iannone said. At checkout, eBay has included tariff duties in the total price of items its sellers ship through SpeedPAK.
For other purchases, he said, eBay is managing expectations for buyers by educating them on:
- New costs
- Information requirements
- Potential delays associated with international shipments.
That includes messaging on the “view item” and “checkout” pages on eBay as well as localized information pages with up-to-date guidance amid rapidly changing policy, he added.
“While our business is not immune to increased cost and friction associated with tariffs, our dynamic global supply and demand is an advantage in this environment,” Iannone said.
eBay revenue and GMV in Q1
In its fiscal Q1, which ended March 31, eBay GMV hit $18.75 billion. That’s up about 1% from $18.62 billion in the year-ago period. Just over half of it came from outside the U.S. — about $9.69 billion.
Iannone said the collectibles category was the largest contributor to GMV growth. Within that category, eBay GMV from trading cards grew for the ninth straight quarter. Additionally, the fashion category generates more than $10 billion in eBay GMV annually.
With that, eBay Q1 revenue grew year over year to $2.58 billion. That’s up about 2% from $2.56 billion in 2024.
Total eBay advertising revenue accounted for $442 million in Q1 and represented GMV penetration of nearly 2.4%, said chief financial officer Steve Priest. And eBay first-party advertising revenue grew 14% in Q1 to reach $418 million. Third-party display ads declined 41% to $8 million as eBay continued to deprecate them.
AI updates at eBay
EBay has launched artificial intelligence (AI)-powered shopping experiences including “Explore” and “Shop the Look.”
At the end of Q1, eBay rolled out a simplified AI-powered listing flow to sellers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. That flow integrates its “magical listing” tool and product knowledge graph.
“Sellers now start their listing with photos and a title, and we leveraged generative AI to identify the exact product in our catalog or filling relevant item aspects wherever possible, including the description,” Iannone said.
Along with halving the average time sellers spend on listings, eBay has seen “significant increases” in both new and reactivated spenders. He added that eBay has seen “measurable increases” in sold items and GMV per listing attempt, not quantifying the growth.
eBay leadership changes
Peggy Alford will be replacing Priest as eBay CFO, effective May 12. Alford is a board member for Meta and was previously executive vice president of global sales and merchant services for PayPal, where she worked for more than 11 years between two stints.
Jordan Sweetnam, chief commercial officer, will lead a new organization within eBay that brings together product and market teams, Iannone said.
Additionally, eBay is consolidating engineering into a single organization to reflect its “broader ambition to operate with greater speed and drive operational scale. Mazen Rawashdeh, chief technology officer, will lead that initiative.
As part of the leadership changes, chief product officer Eddie Garcia will be leaving eBay, Iannone told investors.
Percentage changes may not align due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s our last update on eBay sales, revenue and GMV.
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