The eCommerce marketplace reported third-quarter earnings results Wednesday (Oct. 28), showing revenue of $3.2 billion, a 14% increase.
During an earnings call, management said eBay’s focus is now centered around removing friction for professional sellers while also courting collectors with the help of AI tools and livestreamed auctions.
At the core of this effort is eBay’s magical listing tool, which uses computer vision and machine learning to estimate item details and optimize pricing, and which has reduced listing time for casual listers by approximately one-third.
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“Artificial intelligence has an outsized impact on our C2C business as it reduces friction that prevents consumers from listing and selling successfully,” CEO Jamie Iannone told analysts, adding that AI serves as a structural tailwind for secondary market growth.
Customer behavior is moving in tandem with those capabilities. According to eBay’s latest Recommerce Report, 47% of surveyed consumers now purchase secondhand items at least monthly, up from 35% last year.
“I think I’m seeing this with my own kids and their friends, that increasing behavior,” Iannone said. “I think it’s a secular shift. I think, when you look at it, the younger generation specifically is much more focused on sustainability and driving recommerce. I think initiatives like what Depop is doing is really unlocking stuff that’s sitting in the closets. I like to say that the average household has $4,000 of stuff that could be online, and less than 20% of it is online. If you talk to Gen Zs, they’ll tell you everything that you ever want already exists in this world.”
Depop, eBay’s social ecommerce app, saw U.S. merchandise volume more than double year-over-year, Iannone said on the call.
EBay acquired Depop for $1.4 billion earlier this year. As PYMNTS wrote at the time of the company’s previous earnings report, that deal gives it a stronger position in fashion resale and access to a younger customer base.
“Depop has built a loyal base among Generation Z and millennial consumers, many of whom use the platform as much for discovery and self-expression as for bargain hunting,” the report said. “That makes it strategically valuable to eBay, whose core marketplace has historically skewed older.”
Additionally, the third quarter saw some high-profile and high-value transactions, including a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence for over $3.6 million on eBay’s Goldin marketplace and a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT for $5 million.
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