eBay 2Q 2019 results are in: Marketplace Sales down 1% for the second quarter in a row

[orangehound]

eBay's financial reports are here:  https://investors.ebayinc.com/financial-information/financial-summary/default.aspx

For those who want a quick summary, eBay reported that the second quarter sales on the eBay marketplace are down 1% (when you account for foreign exchange rates) when compared to the same period in 2018.  

That was similar to what was reported in the first quarter of this year ... that is, sales down 1%.

So, while other marketplaces are seeing year-over-year increases of 20-50%, eBay treads water.   This means eBay is losing market share.

[luckythewinner]

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@nc-daydreamer wrote:

I'm afraid that eBay has put on cement shoes and a weighted diver's belt - then jumped into an ocean off of a boat that was floating well - and then has the nerve to be surprised when they begin to drown.  I wonder if they were to start listening to sellers instead of the money grabbers in the board room, if they can be resuscitated? 

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If eBay's GMV drops 1% year-over-year every year for the next 200 years, they will still be selling over $12 billion in merchandise. I guess I'm not thinking that 2 quarters of tepid GMV numbers means they are "drowning". 

And if they listened to some of the sellers on this board, there would be no buyer protection, no returns, widespread retaliatory feedback, blocking buyers with no feedback, deposits required in order to place a bid ... and no buyers. 

[pburn]

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@uncseniorsportsfan wrote:

The key word is "global" when it comes to increase in buyers.   eBay has been putting a lot of effort in India recently.   Many US sellers aren't interested in going global.   

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Oh, did it say somewhere in the documents that the new buyers are from India? I must have missed that. I could've sworn there was no mention of where the new buyers were located.

I think we have to be really careful in making unfounded speculations based on what we want the narrative to be or on our own agenda. If we do that, we stray away from the facts of what the Q2-2019 report actually says into the realm of imagining what we would like it to say and trying to pass that off as fact.

[goodluckselling]

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@klhmdg wrote:

If eBay listened to the sellers and backed them, also got rid of the Chinese scam sellers..they would have more profits.

Sellers should be able to run their stores as they see fit. If the seller says no returns, eBay should not override unless it comes from eBays pockets.

If a buyer wants the option to return.... choose another seller.

If a seller doesn’t have a store they are stuck with whatever new rule eBay trots out.

Think if the people signing up for a store.

There are so many ways they could have grown this platform and all I see is they keep trying to take more from sellers.... if there are no small to midrange sellers... eBay will soon be like AOL

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If you think the sellers standards are strict now, can you imagine how strict they will be if eBay paid return shipping costs?  I guess the idea has some merit?  It would eliminate a lot of sellers with permanent suspensions?

Good Luck Selling!

[goodluckselling]

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@uncseniorsportsfan wrote:

The key word is "global" when it comes to increase in buyers.   eBay has been putting a lot of effort in India recently.   Many US sellers aren't interested in going global.   

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The entire industry is expanding internationally.  61% of all eBay transactions are international transactions.  Amaz in the last month has opened three different country sites.

Sellers not interested in taking advantage of these current trends and facts will be short loved online sellers.

Good Luck Selling!

[reallynicestamps]

@goodluckselling 

Further-- No Returns does not mean No Refunds.

Try putting NO REFUNDS in descriptions in large red letters and watch sales go through the basement floor.

No refunds means you don't want to see it again, and don't want to pay to have it back. That's all.

(I know about the Buyer Remorse exception.)

@klhmdg

If a seller doesn’t have a store they are stuck with whatever new rule eBay trots out.

Think if the people signing up for a store.

Every seller works with the rules of the venue.  Store or no Store.

The only protection from eBay changes that I can think of is annual Store subscriptions having a fixed monthly cost for a full year without changes.

[mvls1]

Here are the GMV (gross merchandise values)change by quarter for 2016 to date.

                               2016           2017          2018          2019

Q1                         +06%        +04%       +13%        -04%

Q2                        +07%        +04%       +10%        -04%

Q3                        +05%        +09%       +05%

Q4                        +05%        +10%        +01%

Do these numbers look good to anyone? Do we see a trend here? Want to guess what Q3 shows?

Just another note from the report. It shows 940,000 sellers now using promoted listings with 250 million listings promoted and generating $89 million in revenue. How many promoted listings can Ebay handle before they start to utilize the "your listing may not always be shown (visible)" terms from the user agreement?

[ed8108]

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@orangehound wrote:

eBay's financial reports are here:  https://investors.ebayinc.com/financial-information/financial-summary/default.aspx

For those who want a quick summary, eBay reported that the second quarter sales on the eBay marketplace are down 1% (when you account for foreign exchange rates) when compared to the same period in 2018.  

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So very interesting

So it's now official now ?, ebay is and still remains the #1  goldmine for sellers ?     

So, are you really better off now than before?

[gracieallen01]

Growth Initiatives

eBay accelerated adoption of its new payments platform, with over 6,000 sellers opting into the program. The company achieved more than $270 million of GMV during the quarter, an increase of 24% quarter-over-quarter that brings the total GMV since launch to $636 million. The PayPal integration for all enrolled U.S. sellers is complete and the offering in Germany is on track to be live by the end of 2019, pending regulatory approval.

First-party advertising continued its impressive growth trajectory. In the second quarter, over 940,000 sellers leveraged first-party advertising to promote over 250 million listings, resulting in $89 million of revenue, a year-over-year growth rate of over 130% on a FX-Neutral basis.

eBay also continued to simplify the buying experience and make the platform more powerful for sellers. The company launched new pages that transformed previously unstructured listings into a more intuitive set of product results, unveiled Brand Outlet, and broadened the simplified returns process to more customers. New seller features were announced to increase buyer conversion including Buy Again, Trending in Your Interests and an expanded Offers to Buyers. The Volume Pricing user interface was dramatically improved, making it much easier for sellers to offer volume-based discounts and for buyers to act on those discounts. In addition, eBay introduced new APIs that will give third-party developers access to managed payments, Promoted Listings and Login with eBay.

Portfolio Update

eBay has taken two actions in the last several weeks to strengthen its portfolio. First, the company has reached a commercial agreement with Paytm Mall to bring eBay’s global inventory onto one of the largest marketplaces in India. Second, eBay has reached an agreement to sell its flash sale German business brands4friends. The company is also actively reviewing the role and value of StubHub and Classifieds in its portfolio to determine the best path forward to maximize shareholder value.

[nc-daydreamer]

Point taken. I concede. 

[orangehound]

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@laurabeardsley wrote:

Smoke and Mirrors

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Whereas corporations always do accounting maneuvers that might move money from one quarter to another, it is fraud and a very serious crime to fudge numbers (see Enron).

I don't ever think of quarterly reports as "smoke and mirrors".

[castlemagicmemories]

Sellers should be able to run their stores as they see fit. If the seller says no returns, eBay should not override unless it comes from eBays pockets.

I agree that a seller's no returns policy should be respected, except in cases of SNAD.  Buyers must have recourse when items are not as described.  Sales would disappear without the MBG.

[castlemagicmemories]

That's interesting.  A drop, with increased GTC listings that were supposed to increase sales?

[kathieskorner]

Most of what I sell has little international appeal, and I have no desire to sell international sports stuff that I know little about.   Nor do I care to ship breakable items overseas,

There should still be a place on eBay to sell only items geared to the US markets instead of new atuff likely made overseas.   

[pburn]

I assume you were just tagging onto my post, since mine was about the number of global active buyers only, and yours is about something else entirely?

[castlemagicmemories]

IIRC eBay said they expected sales to be flat this year.