eBay in new focus on pre-owned fashion

Pre-owned and refurbished goods reached 40% of total GMV on eBay during Q1, having consistently outpaced sales of brand-new goods since the pandemic.

CEO Jamie Iannone told an earnings call that a major priority for the online commerce platform in the year ahead would be “strengthening our consumer value proposition in pre-owned fashion”.

What eBay is doing 

• eBay already has a partnership with the Love Island reality TV show in the UK, through which it has “grown awareness of the sustainability benefits of e-commerce, and educated consumers on the potential economic savings from shopping for pre-owned items” (this was also a Grand Prix winner in the 2023 WARC Awards for Effectiveness).
• In an attempt to “accelerate the circular economy”, it has streamlined the buying and selling experiences for pre-owned fashion on the platform, with an initial focus on the UK. 
• A new AI-powered shopping feed, Explore, enables users to browse a nearly unlimited list of personalised recommendations based on implicit and explicit interest signals, such as the user's style preferences and sizes. 
• ‘Shop the Look’ leverages generative AI to showcase a variety of styles which are linked to visually similar products on eBay live listings in fashion. 

Why it matters

Founded back in 1995, eBay was a pioneer of e-commerce and peer-to-peer selling. Initially focused on collectors, it has since broadened its scope to include everything from luxury items to autoparts – both of which it defines as “focus categories”. 

But 30% of eBay’s C2C sellers are in pre-owned apparel, where there are numerous competitors (Vinted, Depop, etc) and simplifying the selling/buying processes will be crucial to retaining users and, in turn, selling ad products (first-party ad revenue grew 28% in Q1).

Sourced from Seeking Alpha