Ecommerce has taken the world by storm over the past decade. There are myriad platforms and technologies specifically designed to make ecommerce easier, but few are as robust as eBay.
Originally founded as a place for people to sell used goods to other people online through auctions, eBay has grown exponentially. Today, eBay offers that same peer-to-peer experience but has also evolved into a true marketplace where people purchase items directly from sellers for a “buy it now” price. Now, you can find practically anything on eBay. As the platform evolves, the shopping experience does as well, whether you’re a seller or a buyer.
As eBay continues to grow, these statistics help describe the platform’s future.
Those users contribute to a 6.6% market share of the total U.S. ecommerce economy. That’s a fraction of Amazon’s 49% market share, but it is the second-largest share in American ecommerce. [1][2]
Again, that number falls short of Amazon’s 215 million monthly unique visitors and Walmart’s 133 million, but it is the third-largest number among U.S. ecommerce retailers. [3][2]
With more than 1.5 billion listings across 15,000 categories, you truly can find just about anything on eBay. While it’s great that sellers can sell practically anything and buyers can buy practically anything, all those listings can make it difficult to find customers for your product. [4]
eBay is nearly an $11 billion company, thanks primarily to its ecommerce business and its ticketing service StubHub. [5]
eBay’s gross merchandise value (GMV) is higher than the GDP of some countries. There is a constant exchange of goods on the platform, between both professional and amateur sellers. [4]
Mobile shopping has revolutionized ecommerce, and eBay is no exception. Although the platform has only 182 million active users, the mobile app has nearly 514 million downloads. [4]
Of eBay’s 182 million active users, about a third use the mobile shopping app each month. This makes it the third most popular shopping app in the U.S. after Amazon and Walmart. [6][7]
While the largest percentage of eBay sellers are based in the U.S., it is only by a slim margin. 29 percent of sellers are in the U.K., 15% are in Germany, and 12% are in China. [8]
Although it was originally founded as a place to buy and sell used goods, 80% of products on eBay are now brand new. Major brands and retailers now sell their products directly to consumers through eBay, making them competitors with individual sellers. [9]
While 80% of listed items are new, only 56.3% of them sell in the U.S. That’s an improvement over used items, however, which only sell 39.8% of the time. Globally, more than half of all used items on eBay sell, while only one-third of new items sell. [9]
Most ecommerce platforms and advertising networks let you pay to get your product listings or content in front of more people. eBay is no exception. Those 940,000 sellers represent 250 million listings. Promoted Listings generated $89 million in revenue for eBay in the second quarter of 2019 alone, marking a 130% year-over-year growth rate. [1]
eBay has followed in Amazon’s footsteps to implement free shipping on the majority of its products. This makes life a little easier for buyers and sellers alike, as long as sellers can find ways to offset their own shipping costs. [10]
The 18-24 demographic is a great indicator of how shopping habits are evolving. Nearly half of people in this demographic have purchased a used item online, contributing to a normalization of buying used online. [11]
It’s promising that so many young people have bought used items online because 61% of eBay users are considerably older. [12]
Electronics & Accessories is the most popular category on eBay, another positive for the platform’s future as it works to get a younger audience. [13]
eBay was one of the earliest ecommerce platforms on the planet, making it easy for people to buy and sell used goods. Today, it sells mostly new goods from both major retailers and professional sellers, but it eBay is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world and is only getting larger.Whether you’re selling new or used, though, it’s clear that eBay is one of the largest online marketplaces in the world and is only getting larger.