As one of the first and also most prominent global marketplaces, there’s a lot to cover when it comes to eBay. Although initially launched as AuctionWeb, the platform was renamed eBay two years after its launch.
However, the primary concept has remained unchanged: to bring buyers and marketers together in a safe and open marketplace. But what are the top 10 eBay statistics you need to know this 2024?
Today, eBay remains a valuable eCommerce business across the globe. Thanks to its impressively large selection and unbeatable prices, users repeatedly return to eBay.
With online shopping becoming an increasingly popular trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, we’ve decided to review the 20 most important eBay stats and trends for this year.
Anyway, let’s get our hands to it and begin with the top 10 statistics you should know to prepare yourself for this new year.
Number of eBay Users
One of the very first eBay statistics sellers should know concerns its usage – how many people use eBay.
According to Oberloo, as of Q3 2022, there are 135 million eBay users worldwide (eBay, 2022). This refers to the number of shoppers who have bought something on eBay at least once in the past 12 months.
The number of eBay users in Q3 2022 marks a 2.2 percent fall from the previous quarter and a 11.2 percent decrease from the year before.
To that end, the company is working on helping sellers boost buyer engagement and encourage sales by allowing them to upload videos to their eBay stores and increasing the number of photos they can use on their product listings.
Even though eBay’s a US-registered company, its users are scattered across 190 different markets. In fact, over half of eBay’s total gross merchandise volume comes from its international audience.
eBay App Usage and Downloads
Statista found that eBay’s shopping app ranks among the most popular shopping apps in the United States. As many as 3.67 million shoppers use it every single month (Statista, 2021).
This makes the eBay app more popular than those of some of its main rivals such as OfferUp and Alibaba, at least in terms of monthly active users.
The eBay app is also extremely popular among Android users. Recent eBay statistics show that the app is used by over 1.6 million Android users every single day.
This makes it the fourth-most popular shopping app on the Google Play Store, behind Walmart, Amazon, and SHEIN.
Even though the eBay shopping app was launched in 2008, it continues to generate many downloads every month.
According to SensorTower, an app analytics company, the eBay shopping app was downloaded 1 million times in October 2022.
Top-Selling Product Categories on eBay
Edison Trends mentions that the top selling item for eBay was Electronics & Accessories at 16%, while—staying true to its origins—Amazon’s top seller is Books at 16%. In second place at eBay was Clothing & Accessories at 14%, while at Amazon it was Health & Beauty at 12%. In third place at eBay was, perhaps surprisingly, Automotive at 11%, and at Amazon it was Electronics & Accessories at 11%.
Perhaps surprisingly, as eBay is generally known as a place where people sell second-hand collectibles, Toys & Games made up only 5% of eBay sales during the last year.
Comparably low, Toys & Games only made up 3% of Amazon’s sales.
Overall, the lowest selling category from eBay was Magazines at 0.01% of sales and from Amazon, the lowest category was Online Services at 0.2%.
Number of eBay Listings
A report from the same eBay found that there are a total of 1.7 billion listings on eBay, that’s more than 12 times the number of eBay buyers, which means there are a lot of products vying for the attention of 135 million buyers.
Undoubtedly, competition for sales is high, which means you must be prepared to go the extra mile with optimizing your product listings.
Writing informative product descriptions and including relevant keywords will help send your products higher on eBay’s search results pages.
However, you shouldn’t only be considering the top-selling categories because there are plenty of other ways to get your products selling on eBay.
For sellers who are still unsure about what they should sell online, eBay actually has an extremely handy page that can help sellers decide what to list and sell. Their “best-selling items” page has a list of products that serves as a guide for potential sellers. Not only does it recommend categories, but it also dives into specific items in each category.
New or Used
A PR Newswire found that 80 percent of all goods sold on eBay are new. But in terms of sell-through rate, used items are actually outperforming new items. Globally, more than half of all used items listed on eBay get sold, as opposed to one-third of new items.
However, the figures are pretty different for items sold on eBay US, with sell-through rates of 56.3%for new items and 39.8% for used items.
Regardless of whether you decide to sell new or used items, make sure to list its condition accordingly and correctly or you may be in violation of eBay’s selling practices policy.
eBay offers different tag options for both new and used items that vary according to the item and the condition it’s in. For example, a new pair of shoes can be listed as “new with box” or “new – open box”. Likewise, a second-hand book’s condition can be “like new”, “very good”, “good”, or “acceptable”.
To conclude
eBay is an active and successful online marketplace. Since its 1995 launch, the platform has built one of the largest eCommerce businesses and online marketplaces. Continuous advancements and upgrades have made the platform’s success possible even after decades in the industry. Today, eBay holds a valuable spot in the global eCommerce industry. With so many years of success, it is an inspiration for eCommerce businesses worldwide.
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