EBay Inc. reported revenue year-over-year gains for its fiscal Q1 ended March 31, 2024. That matches the total for its highest revenue-generating quarter in 2023 — Q4. Meanwhile, eBay gross merchandise value (GMV) was mostly flat.
In January, eBay laid off 1,000 workers, which was about 9% of its total workforce.
“We reached a major milestone in Q1 as pre-owned and refurbished goods reached 40% of total GMV on our marketplace after consistently outpacing the sales of brand new goods since the pandemic,” said eBay CEO Jamie Iannone.
EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV.
eBay sales grow in Q1
Year over year, eBay revenue grew 2% to $2.56 billion in Q1. That also equals its Q4 2023 revenue, the highest quarter that year and since Q4 2021. However, it’s still about half a billion less than its peak of $3.02 billion in Q1 2021.
EBay GMV was nearly flat, growing 1% year over year to $18.6 billion. Iannone said in a May 1 earnings call with investors that eBay remains “on track for GMV growth to turn positive by Q3 or Q4 of this year.”
Motor parts and accessories were “once again” the largest contributor to eBay sales growth in Q1, Iannone said.
“Fitment is a central component of trust within the P&A category, helping customers understand exactly which of our more than 600 million live listings in this category fit their vehicle,” Iannone said. “We continue to work closely with large P&A [parts and accessories] sellers to augment their inventory using the myFitment toolkit. To date, we have enhanced eligible auto parts with approximately 5 billion pieces of incremental fitment data and we’ve continued to see a double-digit increase in conversion on these augmented listings.”
On April 30, eBay announced a multi-year partnership with the McLaren Racing Formula One team. That deal will see eBay branding featured on the cars of two drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, during the 2024 season.
Collectibles also remained a major contributor to eBay sales in Q1, Iannone said. EBay has rolled out new features for collectibles, including:
- My collections
- Price guides
- Authentication and grading partnerships
- Revamped condition standards
- Live commerce
- Vault storage
- New shipping methods to reduce costs
EBay has launched a simplified listing flow for sports trading cards to all U.S. sellers, Iannone said. It uses proprietary technology to prefill the listing with relevant item aspects, provide simpler shipping options and offer “smarter” pricing recommendations based on the card’s value and condition, Iannone added. The rollout has led to a double-digit percentage reduction in listing time and “measurable increases in completed listings and sold items per customer,” he said without revealing more.
eBay Live shopping in beta
Iannone said eBay Live spans multiple categories, including collectibles such as comics and sports memorabilia. It enabled viewing on desktop, on which Iannone said eBay improved homepage discoverability with personalized recommendations.
EBay also introduced AI-powered tools to enhance discovery, he added. One such feature is called Explore, and it enables users to browse “a list of personalized recommendations based on implicit and explicit interest signals, such as the user’s style preferences and sizes,” Iannone said. “The Explore feed updates in real-time in response to products that users interact with, while buyers can refine their shopping journey using our visually similar search feature powered by computer vision.”
Explore is also in beta and is currently available to all U.K. eBay users. Iannone said Explore has focused on fashion so far and that eBay plans to expand the feature’s capabilities later in the year.
eBay doubles down on collectibles segment with acquisition
In April — after Q1 ended — eBay acquired sports auction house Goldin Auctions from Collectors.
“Combining Goldin with eBay enhances our respective marketplace offerings by expanding the range of inventory available to eBay customers and opening up an expansive global audience for Goldin sellers,” Iannone said. “We believe this will enable a more well-rounded collecting experience across price points and service models, complementing our acquisition of TCGPlayer and recent partnership with sports trading card company, COMC.”
The online marketplace also agreed to divest the eBay Vault to PSA. Collectors is the parent company of PSA, which offers third-party authentication and grading services in the collectibles industry.
Also in April, eBay rolled out an early version of Shop the Look, which uses generative AI to create shoppable content and fashion recommendations. It is currently live on iOS in the United States and U.K.
Ad business
In Q1, eBay first-party advertising grew 28%. Meanwhile, total ad revenue represented 2.1% of GMV.
“During the quarter, over 3 million sellers adopted a single ad product and we ended the quarter with over $950 million live promoted listings,” Iannone said. “Our standard cost per acquisition units remain the largest contributor to year-over-year ad revenue growth in Q1, followed by our cost per click (CPC) advanced product.”
eBay earnings
For its fiscal Q1 ended March 31, eBay Inc. reported:
- Gross merchandise value (GMV) grew about 1% to reach $18.6 billion.
- eBay revenue grew more than 2% to $2.56 billion.
- Total advertising revenue grew 20% to $384 million and represented 2.1% penetration of GMV.
Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s eBay report.
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