EBay : How Technology is Helping eBay Sellers Succeed

eBay's purpose is to create economic opportunity for all. Our technology helps facilitate this goal, empowering sellers to not only get up and running on our marketplace but also to leverage tools and data to grow and succeed. Last year, faced with the challenges of the global pandemic, we further strengthened our partnership with sellers, innovating to meet their needs as they increasingly turned to eBay to replace lost income. A recent survey of both B2C and C2C eBay sellers shows how our commitment helped them during a difficult time - and will continue to do so as we move forward.

Despite a tough year for the global economy, the survey found that over half of eBay sellers grew their businesses on the marketplace in 2020, in part due to our latest tools and products. As just one example, of sellers who often use Terapeak - a data-driven research tool that provides sellers with essential eBay marketplace intelligence to improve their business - 32% grew their (total) businesses significantly in 2020 compared to just 23% of sellers who never use the tool.

The survey confirms eBay's overall goal: to accelerate our tech-led reimagination and be the partner of choice for our sellers by empowering our customers to succeed. We are creating tools that help our sellers across their entire business, including competitive price-setting, creating compelling listings to better target buyers, selling locally and more options for shipping needs.

'We are committed to partnering with sellers every step of the way through our marketplace, from more immediate and short-term listing needs to the long-term view of helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow and succeed,' said Harry Temkin, eBay's VP of Seller Experience. 'Our goal is to continue to innovate and create tools that help optimize seller experiences, making them as easy, frictionless and smooth as possible as we empower our sellers to thrive.'

Tools That Meet Seller Needs Now

Already, our sellers are finding value in some of our newest tech innovations, such as tools that expand exposure to buyers and leverage data for listings and inventory guidance. According to our survey, 52% of sellers use Promoted Listings, which allows sellers to boost the visibility of their listings; and 40% take advantage of Time Away, which allows sellers to update their listings and protect their on-time delivery record while they are on vacation or away from selling. And over a third of respondents said that the Offer to Buyers feature had the biggest positive impact on their business in 2020.

As sellers look to 2021 and beyond, they're providing guidance on the areas of their business that are most crucial to their success. Of those surveyed, shipping (81%), pricing (66%), customer experience (65%) and listing optimization (65%) are the areas where eBay tools are most helpful to maintain and grow their businesses. The importance of being able to price items and handle shipping to ensure smooth delivery are reconfirmed by sellers as they say that pricing (79%) and shipping (74%) are areas of their business that most impact their ability to sell.

Innovating for Future Seller Success

We are continuing to create tools that address sellers' needs and help accelerate their growth - and also to make sure that sellers are taking full advantage of the wealth of tools that are already available. As part of our commitment to being the partner of choice, we provide sellers with data and insights to propel their businesses - and we ask questions that can help us further innovate for the future.

Survey findings highlight that 72% of sellers surveyed believe that having technology applications and features to support shipping would be most helpful to growing their business in the future, followed by listing management tools (61%) and pricing tools (59%). Other tools that sellers say would be important to the growth of their business in the future include tools that improve the visual appeal of their eBay store (45%), sales reporting tools (34%) and insights tools that provide a dashboard of data about sellers' businesses (30%) - all features that help sellers level-up their business.

As we strengthen our partnership with sellers, we will continue to listen to their needs and respond with tools and products that add value to their eBay experience and help grow their business. From individuals to small business sellers to mid- and large-size brands, we provide all sellers, across our marketplace, with next-gen tools and technology. Our tools allow everyone to enter and grow on our marketplace with equal opportunity for success, tailored for their individual inventory and goals.

Methodology

In January 2021, eBay commissioned a survey of 1,099 B2C and C2C sellers across a spectrum of sizes and categories across the U.S. Respondents were all part of the eBay Expression seller panel and they were contacted by email to participate in the research study.