eBay Changes Definition of Gross Merchandise Volume

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


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eBay Announces Change to Gross Merchandise Volume Definition and Releases Updated Historical Metrics
The company has changed its definition of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) to align with customer money flows on its platforms eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world, today announced it has changed its definition of Gross Merch…

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- eBay Inc., a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world, today announced it has changed its definition of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) to align with customer money flows on its platforms.

GMV provides a useful measure of the overall transaction volume on eBay's platforms and is correlated to net transaction revenue. The Company has updated its definition of GMV to include all paid transactions on its platforms inclusive of shipping fees and taxes.

Previously, eBay reported GMV regardless of whether the buyer and seller actually consummated the transaction. This change has been enabled by the increased visibility derived from the Company's transition to managing payments globally.

The updated GMV definition has an immaterial impact on previously reported GMV. Please refer to the table at the back of this release for a restatement of historical metrics.

The restatement of historical metrics, including GMV and active buyers, can also be found on the Investor Relations section of ebayinc.com. GMV under this new definition does not materially change guidance issued by the Company on October 27, 2021.

While the inclusion of shipping and sales tax is likely to raise some eyebrows, at least this definition of GMV specifically states it is the total value of all paid transactions on the site.

The previous definition lacked such specifics instead stating it was the total value of all successfully closed transactions between users on our platforms during the period regardless of whether the buyer and seller actually consummated the transaction.

Consummated in this context is synonymous with "paid", which means that a "closed" transaction could be one in which a buyer committed to purchase, but did not ultimately make a payment to complete the transaction.

Due to this change, going forward, only paid transactions will be counted and, as stated in the press release above, that will require redefining how eBay counts Active Buyer figures too.

Previously, Active Buyers were also defined by "successfully closed" transactions, regardless of whether payment was ever completed.

All buyers who successfully closed a transaction on our Marketplace within the previous 12-month period. Buyers may register more than once, and as a result, may have more than one account.

Now, Active Buyer and Seller stats will only include paid transactions in the previous 12 months.

All buyers who paid for a transaction on our platforms within the previous 12-month period. Buyers may register more than once, and as a result, may have more than one account.

This has caused eBay to also restate Active Buyers going back to 2018 (figures from eBay's amended quarterly reports):

Source: eBay Investor Relations - Amended Quarterly Reports

eBay says the restatement of GMV is immaterial, but looking at the actual numbers is quite illuminating, showing ~$13 Billion per year for a total variance of almost $40 Billion.

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Liz Morton is a 17 year ecommerce pro turned indie investigative journalist providing ad-free deep dives on eBay, Amazon, Etsy & more, championing sellers & advocating for corporate accountability.


Recent Comments
Avatar PlaceholderConcernedYesterday
It is Slowwwwwww and is more expensive to the buyer. In the past items I have ordered will sit at the hub for around 2 weeks. I avoid ebay unless I cannot get it elsewhere.
Avatar Placeholdermarks30472 days ago
Hi, I have a friend who had an interesting experience recently that fell under this issue. They sold an item, packed and dispatched to the UK Ebay hub, this was midway through the period as the pause occurred. They then received a message from the buyer that they had checked tracking and discovered that the item had disappeared on ebay, no advice. It then turned out that the tracking had been fudged and the package was with them but not forwarded on to the USA. A few hours of to and fro to get the answer that it was due to the tariff dilemma. NO fault of the buyer(who had paid) or the seller ((who had been paid) and a strange response that the item could not be delivered. The buyer would be refunded in full, the seller would keep payment and the item would not be returned. Strange, Ebay must be hurting paying our both sides of the deal+
Avatar Placeholdercwi3 days ago
  1. Start building out the brand and promoting the heck out of Canadian sellers to our domestic market. Work with Federal/Provincial level governments in the push to build a strong presence here in Canada.

  2. Add other calculated shipping options than Canada Post UPS/FedEx for domestic shipping - partner with couriers nationwide, leverage agreements and software integrations with courier reseller platforms such as Stallion Express. Build out a crowd sourced network using national/regional retail locations as drop points for rural regions, leveraging transport networks to move packages to courier pickup points, akin to the UK courier model but adapted to the Canadian realities.

  3. Create a centralized international shipping clearing house to aide micro businesses with affordable shipping rates and customs clearance to avoid pitfalls and complexities (akin to US eIS).

  4. Bring features forward to the platform from other localizations, such as prepaid best offer acceptance, etc.