A collection of key eBay statistics, facts, and trends for those who sell on eBay, those considering starting an eBay business, and those who simply want to learn more about the internet's pioneer ecommerce platform. Learn everything you need to know about eBay with informative graphs that highlight strategic trends, charts that compare informative data points over time, organized lists that give you important facts at a glance.
eBay Statistics Overview
Before we dive into cold hard stats, it's important to take a step back and ensure that we're examining these statistics from an informed perspective, one that helps us understand what they mean in the grand scheme of things. To help us do that, we'll begin with a brief overview of the history of eBay, where we'll explore eBay's beginnings and see how it evolved over the years. Then, with a solid understanding of how eBay has changed and grown in the years since it was founded, we'll take a look at how many users there are on the marketplace today by examining two highly indicative eBay statistics: current number of users and current number of listings.
History of eBay
eBay launched its website in 1995, right before the internet was became a standard fixture in American households. It was a pioneer in its field, bringing together ordinary people from all over the United States in an online forum where they could buy and sell virtually anything. In the beginning, eBay was exclusively an auction forum, where sellers would list an item and sell it to the highest bidder.
As it evolved, eBay began offering more buying formats, including Buy It Now and Best Offer. In the last decade, eBay stepped up its game by prioritizing B2C ecommerce, and worked hard towards attracting professional, specialized sellers from all over the globe. Judging by the fact that 80% of items sold on eBay today are new, this move has been largely successful. Today, eBay offers powerful tools for professional sellers, ranging from authentication services for high-ticket items to eBay Store subscriptions which enable sellers to have their very own store on eBay. eBay also offers integration for powerful eBay selling tools like 3Dsellers, which help sellers list, sell, and manage their eBay businesses more efficiently.
Current Number of Users and Listings
With its variety of selling tools and integrations, eBay has reached an impressive number of users and listings. Shoppers on eBay today can find anything from electronics to vehicle parts for sale, with sellers on eBay often shipping all over the globe. In fact, even after all these years, eBay holds its own as the second most visited shopping website among US buyers. As of writing, there are over 135 million users worldwide, with over 1.7 billion active listings for shoppers to peruse.
eBay Key Statistics and Trends for 2024
With a solid overview of eBay's history under our belt, it's time to take a look at some key eBay statistics for 2024. These figures will help you get a more detailed snapshot of eBay as it is today, from a perspective that's relevant to you as an eBay seller. We'll take a look at revenue, gross merchandise value, the number of active sellers and buyers, and the top 10 leading product categories, and give you concrete examples of best-selling products in each.
Revenue: In 2023, eBay reported an impressive annual revenue of $10.112 billion. This number is an increase of 3.34% from the previous year, which had an annual revenue of $9.795 billion. For 2024, Q1 revenue was reported at $2.556 billion. Even when extrapolating from Q1 of 2024, generally a weak quarter for ecommerce sales with no major shopping events, eBay is expected to surpass its 2023 revenue in 2024.
GMV: in Q1 of 2024, eBay's GMV was reported at $18.6 billion. In the previous year, GMV totaled $73.2 billion. Extrapolating from Q1, eBay's GMV in 2024 is expected to reach $74.4 billion.
Active Sellers: As of writing, eBay has 18 million active sellers around the globe.
Active Buyers: eBay reported 132 million active buyers on the platform in Q1 of 2024, maintaining the same number of active buyers from the previous year.
Leading eBay Product Categories
Which products on eBay are most popular with buyers is ever changing, but there are some product categories that are consistent buyer favorites. Below, we've listed the top ten product categories on eBay today, with a few examples of popular items that buyers love in each category for 2024.
Smartphone accessories
In 2024, people do most of their shopping, social networking, and a good chunk of their work on their mobile phone. With cell phones being such an integral part of day-to-day life, it's no surprise that essentials phone cases, AirPod cases, and charging cables are consistent buyer favorites on eBay.
Clothing
While there's no shortage of secondhand fashion shoppers on eBay, the majority of clothing sold on the platform is simple and functional. Reasonably-priced t-shirts, hoodies, and leggings make up the perfect casual fit for your average eBay shopper.
Fashion accessories
Trendy and fun to buy, fashion accessories are a favorite for both buyers and sellers on eBay. Anything from bags to hats to shoes, shoppers are always on the lookout for a good deal on the perfect piece to upgrade their wardrobe.
Home décor
In a post-pandemic world, home is where we spend a huge portion of our time. This fundamental change in how we work and play has brought the niche of home décor back to the forefront of shoppers' priorities. eBay shoppers are now buying things like wall art, throw blankets, and seasonal décor more than ever before to make their homes not only where they spend most of their time, but also their favorite place to be.
Fitness products
Today's shopper is more health and fitness-conscious than ever, and they're always on hunt for the perfect product that helps them get more out of their workout, whether it be at the gym or at home. From athleticwear like sports bras and workout shorts, to accessories like yoga mats and reusable water bottles, fitness products are always in high demand on eBay.
Pet products
Pets are part of the family, which is why spending on pet products is only increasing. In fact, according to Bloomberg, the pet products industry is expected to grow to $500 billion by 2030! Sell anything from food bowls to collars to pet beds, and get in on this quickly-growing product niche.
Home and garden supplies
Another shopping trend shaped by a post-pandemic world, today's online shopper prioritizes upgrading their living space more than ever before. Think kitchen appliances and lighting for indoors, and garden furniture and barbecues for the backyard, and tap into a buyer pool that's always eager to update and upgrade.
Automotive parts
eBay Motors is almost a marketplace within a marketplace, a corner of eBay that offers an endless selection of vehicles and parts. Buyers can buy anything and everything they could need for DIY car repairs and upgrades, ranging from replacement hubcaps to wheels and tires, car lights to GPS systems, and much more.
Collectibles
No matter the item, there's a collector's community for it somewhere out there. On eBay, some popular collectibles include toys (both vintage and contemporary, like collectible figurines), sports memorabilia (i.e. baseball cards, signed items, etc.), and NFTs.
Jewelry and watches
Last but not least, this incredibly popular category has been a consistent buyer and seller favorite on eBay. Buyers can get a good deal on a unique piece of jewelry or name-brand watch, and sellers enjoy making sales on high-value, easy-to-ship items.
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eBay Sellers Statistics
As a seller on eBay, some of the most important eBay statistics for you are those that have to do with other sellers on the platform. Knowing your competition is essential to planning virtually every aspect of your business, from ad strategy to inventory acquisition. Below, we'll take a look at eBay statistics that pertain to sellers on the marketplace, and give you a full breakdown of eBay active sellers by year, plus an overview of eBay sellers by country.
Active eBay Sellers by Year
As one of the veteran ecommerce marketplaces, eBay has been around for a very long time. Throughout that time, changes in how eBay views its sellers – and the marketplace changes it has enacted as a result – have had a direct impact on the number of sellers on the platform. We can see a peak in number of sellers in the year 2015, years in which the selling experience on eBay underwent considerable changes. In 2015 eBay and PayPal split, and was the beginning of eBay's shift in perspective regarding what type of seller it wanted to prioritize on the platform.
While in its early days the marketplace consisted exclusively of casual sellers, by 2015, eBay had recognized the potential of attracting more professional sellers to its marketplace. In the following years it introduced more seller tools, and simultaneously created a more structured buying experience for its shoppers.
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eBay Sellers by Country by Percentage
Looking at a worldwide distribution of eBay sellers, it's clear that the anglophone world is still the main source of sellers, with 60% of eBay sellers based either in the US or UK. Next, we can see that selling on eBay is popular in Germany as well, with 15% of eBay sellers based in Germany, and Chinese sellers trailing not far behind with 12% of eBay's active sellers.
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eBay Buyers Statistics
Understanding seller statistics is important, but no less important is understanding who your potential buyers are on eBay. In 2024, eBay still holds its own as the second most visited ecommerce website in the United States. But that statistic is a bit more nuanced than it sounds. Today, the world of ecommerce is not contained exclusively on ecommerce sites; buyers can shop through social media and webstores, too, challenging the previously unimpeded reign of marketplaces in a new era of online shopping. Below, we'll take a look at the number of active eBay shoppers over the years, and try to understand what the numbers could mean for you as an eBay seller.
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Active Buyers by Year
As shoppers began to look to social media and their favorite influencers for their next purchase, the number of active buyers on eBay began to decline. Starting from Q4 of 2022, however, the trend slowed significantly, and the number of active buyers remained mostly stable. It's important to remember that eBay shoppers are distinct from TikTok shoppers in everything from demographics to shopping habits, which means that this decline in raw numbers will likely have little effect on the average seller on eBay.
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eBay Users Statistics
As a platform, eBay has relatively blurred lines in terms of buyer-seller divide, with every user having the ability to both buy and sell with the same account. For this reason, it's helpful to take a step back and look at eBay's usage statistics from a more general active user perspective. This enables us to understand the overall activity of the marketplace without focusing on lower resolution indicators like active sellers or buyers. Here, we'll take a look at eBay's active users by year, and understand what that could mean for the marketplace's future in the world of ecommerce.
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Active eBay Users by Year
An active user on eBay is defined as a user who has listed, bought, bid on, or sold at least one item in the preceding 12 month period. In the graph below, we can see a peak in such users in 2018, after which the number of active users has slowly declined. As we touched on earlier, this shift coincides with the social commerce boom driven by social media.
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eBay Revenue, Profits and GMV Insights and Statistics
Now that we've covered nearly every angle of user statistics, it's time to take a look at the money. Below, we'll examine eBay's revenue and profit over the years, as well as the marketplace's gross merchandise volume trends. These statistics should give us a good indication of where the site is headed, and what you can expect for your future as an eBay seller.
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eBay Revenue by Year
eBay's annual revenue reached record levels in 2012, but it's consistently reported impressive revenue in successive years, too. In 2023, eBay reported revenue of $10.112 billion, an impressive number for a marketplace that doesn't sell to buyers directly.
eBay Profit by Year
eBay's annual profit reports have never been steady, but they're not necessarily indicative of what you can expect your sales to look like on the platform as a seller. Below, we can see year with impressive profits and years with lower profits and even losses, the latter often coinciding with years that had impressive revenue.
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eBay Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) by Year
GMV is a good indicator of the profitability of selling on a particular marketplace, since it shows how much revenue is generated by actual sales on that platform. Over the years, the GMV statistics for eBay have been impressive and shown overall growth. When the fact that eBay doesn't directly choose what is sold on its marketplace is taken into account, these numbers become even more impressive.
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eBay Website Traffic and Device Usage Statistics
Understanding how eBay users interact with the marketplace is an important part of optimizing your listings, inventory, and ads to more effectively grow your sales. In this section, we'll take a look at eBay's website traffic over the past few years, and examine where that traffic comes from today.
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eBay Website Traffic by Year
While eBay still holds its own as the second most visited ecommerce website after Amazon, its average monthly visitors are declining, albeit unsteadily. This undoubtedly can be attributed in part to the meteoric rise of social commerce and its supplanting of more traditional ecommerce models, but the trend is nevertheless there. This doesn’t mean that it's set in stone or that it cannot be reversed, but it does indicate a shift in the way online shoppers see their preferred online buying experience.
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Device Usage for eBay by Percentage
Another important indicator of how shoppers prefer to shop is what device they use to access eBay. As of November of last year, 59.22% of visits to eBay.com were from mobile devices, while only 40.78% were from desktops. The fact that more buyers access eBay through their mobile phone (either via the eBay app or a mobile browser) is important, particularly because it illustrates how crucial it is that your eBay listings are optimized both for mobile and desktop viewing.
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eBay Market Share and Competition Statistics
As mentioned before, eBay is the second most visited ecommerce platform among US buyers, owing to its decades-long reputation as the place to buy and sell anything practically anything online. While it holds its own in the US market, eBay is starting to lose traction in international arenas, where giants like Ali Express have taken over many product niches that were formerly dominated by eBay. Below, we'll discuss eBay's market share in the United States, and see what the numbers can mean for you as a seller on eBay.
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eBay Market Share in the US
Even when up against established retail giants like Amazon, eBay holds its own with an impressive 18% market share in the United States. In terms of ranking, it comes in as an even more impressive second in ecommerce marketplaces, ahead of Walmart with almost double its market share. This positions eBay in a unique spot for online sellers – it's popular enough to be the second-largest ecommerce site by market share, yet small enough where you can carve out a meaningful presence as a seller.
Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways: The Future of eBay
The internet is notoriously fickle, with trends coming and going faster than ever before. In this spirit of relentless novelty and innovation, and undoubtedly due to many downturns over the years, eBay has been eulogized time and time again. Nevertheless, the fact remains that eBay has consistently held its own among online retail giants like Walmart and Amazon, and its done this by offering a unique blend of selling and buying experiences.
The future of any online marketplace is never certain, but if history is anything to go by, eBay is not throwing in the towel just yet. It's introducing impressive new tools and programs for sellers that enable them to offer their buyers a better shopping experience, and is still able to attract buyers and sellers alike to a marketplace that always seems to have something for everyone.
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FAQs about eBay Statistics
While top categories on eBay can change over time, there are undeniable buyer favorites. The ten top selling product categories on eBay in 2024 are:
- Smartphone accessories
- Clothing
- Fashion accessories
- Home décor
- Fitness products
- Pet products
- Home and garden supplies
- Automotive parts
- Collectibles
- Jewelry and watches
In 2023, eBay had over 135 million active users on the platform. Active users are defined by eBay as users who either bought, sold, listed, or bid on an item in the last 12 months.
Mobile users accounted for 61% of all sales on eBay in 2023, in line with mobile phone usage on other major marketplaces like Amazon (60%) and Etsy (64%).
eBay has a variety of localized sites, including eBay.de, eBay.co.uk, eBay.fr, eBay.es, eBay.au, and many more. That said, many sellers on eBay ship all over the globe, often with the help of eBay's Global Shipping Program, making eBay available to buyers worldwide.
The data on our eBay Statistics page comes from a variety of sources. We gather information from eBay's investor news and press releases, as well as 3Dsellers insights. We also verify our data by cross-referencing it with other sites such as Marketplace Pulse, Business of Apps, Macrotrends, Helplama, and more.
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