eBay Continues Final Value & Ad Fee Discounts Hoping For Q2 2025 GMV & Enthusiast Buyer Boost
eBay continues leaning on final value and ad fee discounts, sacrificing revenue to try to goose GMV and enthusiast buyer stats for Q2 2025.
The steep discounts aimed at converting casual sellers into buyers started in Q4 2024 in reaction to Wall Street's concerns about weak Q4 guidance provided in eBay's Q3 earnings report.
Liz Morton
eBay pulled out all the stops to try to "buy" GMV and Active Buyer growth in Q4 by introducing fee-free selling in the UK across most categories in October and offering 0% fee promotions through the end of the year in some categories to business sellers as well, in order to try to quell backlash from the C2C initiatives and keep sellers from defecting to Vinted Pro.
While eBay managed to eke out a tiny 1% growth in total Active Buyers in Q4, the number of "enthusiast buyers" - those who shop on eBay at least 6 times per year, spend at least $800 per year or buyers who also sell on the site - was still stuck at ~16 Million, which is where it's been since Q4 2022.
Liz Morton
The discounting strategy continued to ramp up in Q1 2025 with more offers targeted at turning sellers into buyers along with frequent 50-75% off ad fee promotions trying to entice sellers into using eBay's Promoted Listings advertising products.
Liz Morton
We'll see if that strategy paid off when eBay reports Q1 2025 earnings on April 30th, but so far CEO Jamie Iannone is showing no signs of slowing down as discounts have expanded even further so far in Q2.
Many users report they continue to receive offers specifically targeted at turning sellers into enthusiast buyers.
But some say eBay is desperately upping the ante on this deal to try to boost average order value, giving them a coupon worth $50 instead of the previously offered $15 discount but requiring a purchase of $125+ to get it.
For the sake of keeping the math easy, if someone were to use that $50 coupon on a $125 order, that would work out to a massive 40% discount - one of the highest rates eBay has offered so far.
Sellers in the eBay community have expressed some confusion as it seems it can take several days for the coupon to become available and it only appears within their eBay account, not in an email or message.
Current “$50 off coupon” seller promotion?
I got the same coupon offering and actually sold and item a couple of days ago. The terms of the offer say the coupon will be sent within 2 weeks of a confirmed sale, so I reached out to support for clarification but they said there’s no ability on their end to manually issue the coupon.
Today I received an email saying that the “$50 coupon will arrive soon via email and a message” so I’m hoping it’s within 24-48 hours.
Initially I got an email from ebay saying I was eligible for the coupon if I sold an item under the listed terms. Once it sold, I got another email saying that the coupon was on the way.
Sometime during the week following the sale, the coupon just appeared in my "My Ebay" section, not as a message in my inbox, but just as a banner at the top of the page (viewed on desktop, unsure if it would show up in the mobile app).
It was dismissable as with any other banner and could have been accidentally dismissed, which is odd because it was the only notification I had for the code and it wasn't listed anywhere else.
I was able to use the code on a purchase, though, and it worked fine.
eBay has also been running Final Value Fee discount promotions for specific categories, like offering 50% FVF for high value trading cards sold on the platform through May 3rd.
Liz Morton
And of course the ad fee discount offers are continuing at a desperate pace as well.
The willingness to give up fee revenue in order to boost GMV and Active Buyers is an interesting strategy - particularly since Iannone had been highly critical of previous CEO Devin Wenig's frequent discounts (paid by eBay) to try to attract more buyers in 2018-2019.
Those 15-20% off flash sales proved to be a double edged sword - once buyers get used to receiving discounts, they'll often wait for a sale before making a purchase, creating "one and done" or only occasional buying patterns.
Wenig's strategy was considered such a failure that Iannone felt the need to explicitly distance himself from it when he took the helm, telling investors in 2021:
We've discontinued legacy tactics that led to low value, infrequent or one and done buyers. Our buyer base is starting to evolve based on this strategy. These high-volume buyers are growing compared to a year-ago and their spend on eBay is growing even faster. This higher-quality mix of buyers increases value for sellers and will lead to improved health of our ecosystem over the long-term...
..This is something that I laid out last July when we talked about the tech-led reimagination as being focused on turning buyers into lifelong enthusiasts on the platform and moving away from the tactics that we had in 2019 what was really just about the number of active buyers even low value buyers or one and done buyers.
However, despite his criticism of those past tactics, it's hard not to see that eBay is increasingly putting themselves in a similar position with sellers and fees.
Sellers could become habituated to frequent discounts, just like buyers did, and hold back some inventory until a fee discount or promotion is offered.
While gaining more "enthusiast buyers" who also sell on the site and boosting GMV are worthy goals for the company (and may even be worth allocating additional marketing or discount dollars), as always the devil is in the details and execution.
If Iannone is confident this strategy will create long-term, sustainable GMV and Active Buyer growth without the significant downside risks he criticized his predecessor for taking, then he should have no problem candidly discussing how much any (presumed) growth in those areas can be attributed to these initiatives as well as costs and return on investment on the next earnings call.
If instead he and/or CFO Steve Priest try to present any (presumed) growth as proof their "magical" strategy is working while not disclosing any of that crucial context - investors would be wise to dig deeper, demand honesty and transparency, and take a hard look at the near to long-term prospects for the company if eBay remains under current leadership.
marks3047
