eBay Investor Day 2022
eBay SVP, GM NA Jordan Sweetnam posted a recap of eBay's Investor Day 2022 to the community today - highlighting eBay Vault, eBay Wallet, new ad options coming soon for eBay Stores, and more.
Full statement from Jordan below & stay tuned for in-depth coverage of Investor Day and the Spring Seller Update from an experience seller perspective!
Today, eBay hosted an investor day - the first one since CEO Jamie Iannone took the helm. This was a chance to demonstrate how the marketplace is performing, make some big announcements, and share what the future will hold. While the event is geared toward investors, there were a number of interesting pieces of information revealed about our business, our customers, and new features, which I wanted to make sure you all heard clearly.
Jamie kicked things off with his perspective, and why eBay is uniquely positioned to succeed: “We are building an eBay for the future by doubling down on what we do best – connecting sellers and buyers of non-new-in-season products. We see incredibly compelling growth potential in this market and believe it is our opportunity to win by sharpening our focus and continuing to create value through a tech-led reimagination of eBay.”
Our new head of strategy, Stefanie Jay, then talked about the types of buyers who come to eBay and what we are doing to make sure we exceed their expectations. This was a natural lead into my section on focus categories, which I co-presented with the head of our European business, Rob Hattrell. It was exciting to update investors on what we’ve accomplished together, and why our seller community is the backbone of eBay. Below you’ll find some of the key themes that I covered.
Who We Are: A Community of Enthusiasts
Trust is the foundation of every transaction, since our very beginning. eBay stood for trust back then - as the first peer to peer marketplace - and we’re doubling down on trust now. Since introducing Authenticity Guarantee in 2020, we have authenticated more than two million items in four categories, and we expect to surpass five million items in the next 24 months.
We started with luxury (watches, sneakers, handbags) and expanded to collectibles (trading cards) - because we knew these shoppers wanted to know they were getting authentic inventory. These are fast-growing categories with younger audiences, and enthusiast customers who shop across eBay. This customer is key to eBay’s success. In fact, the average enthusiast buyer shops across eight categories - when we serve these shoppers well in their passion category, they stay with us and shop across the site.
How We’re Doing: The Results
What we’ve demonstrated is that a more trusted and seamless shopping experience moves our customer satisfaction scores (or CSAT). Compared to 2019, CSAT has risen remarkably - we’re seeing happy customers spending more, AND they’re coming back more often. Now, in categories where we have improved the experience our growth rate is outpacing the rest of the platform by 15 points – and this is significant.
Where We’re Focusing Now: Parts & Accessories
One out of every three eBay shoppers buys parts and accessories. This category is all about confidence - getting the exact item that will be a perfect fit for a car, truck or motorcycle. There’s been explosive growth in areas like green parts, electric vehicle parts, boat parts, and parts for quad bikes, so you can see why P&A is the next eBay focus category. We’re taking strong steps like upgrading the fitment and finders experience, connecting with customers in-person at auto shows and events, and investing in full funnel marketing. During today’s events, and in partnership with our head of growth, Julie Loeger, we shared highlights from our “Let’s Ride” ad campaign that’s helping to drive more buyers to your listings.
The Future: Collectibles
The market for trading cards and collectibles continues to accelerate, and eBay is the biggest trading platform for these categories. Our headline announcement today was the eBay Vault, coming next quarter. This is a 31 thousand square foot, secure storage facility and digital marketplace for trading cards and collectibles, with plans to expand into luxury goods.
Why this is such big news
Once an item is in the eBay Vault, customers know their valuables are secure and “instant sale” becomes possible. While many customers will keep their items in the vault for years, once it is in the Vault then ownership can transfer from seller to buyer in a matter of seconds – without the need to re-authenticate, re-package or ship the item anywhere. This unlocks a new way to engage with eBay: imagine instantly buying and selling cards and sports memorabilia as a great new rookie lands a play in the final minutes of a tight game.
Within a few years, we expect the Vault will hold up to $3 billion in assets, which would make it one of the largest stores of non-governmental assets in the world. Keeping high-value inventory within the eBay ecosystem is great for everyone, and the Vault will make other planned features possible, like fractionalization.
Payments Feature & New Seller Tools
Investors heard about a new payments feature - eBay’s first digital wallet. Beginning next quarter, sellers will be able to store sale proceeds in their digital wallet, getting near instant access to use those funds to shop on eBay. This is the ultimate eBay flywheel and will power the future of our “sell to buy” shoppers.
Our head of product, Pete Thompson, also went through some cool new features that I think you’re going to love. A few stand-outs include: a unified listing tool and the ability to add video to your listings, which will soon be available to all sellers. Across the board, we are making it simpler to list and transact - either by changing our messaging flow so members can chat more easily, or by expanding our existing image based listing flow into new categories.
And, our head of advertising, Alex Kazim, announced a new ad format coming later this year to help promote sellers’ eBay Stores. We know that many of you are focused on establishing your brand and creating repeat buyers - this new format will help drive traffic directly to your store by targeting both keywords and products. With this new feature, store sellers will be able to reach out to new buyers in new ways, and we’re excited to see how this helps grow your business.
What’s Ahead
Finally, we announced our intention to scale our focus categories to cover at least 50% of the site in the next three years. So by the end of 2024, half of all of the dollars spent on eBay will be in an area where we have dramatically improved the buyer and seller experience. We’re continuously reinforcing eBay as a trusted marketplace - this drives customer loyalty in both the focus categories and across the entire site.
You can view a five-minute video recap of today’s presentations here or hear the full sessions here, and I hope the team’s energy, enthusiasm, and tenacity comes through loud and clear. We’re more focused, we’re moving faster, and we’re taking bolder moves than ever before. Our platform brings together people who are passionate about their interests, and no other marketplace can match us.
As always, I will let you know each step we’re taking to make your business stronger. Thank you for continuing with us on this incredible journey, and thank you - always - for selling on eBay.
Jordan Sweetnam
SVP + General Manager, Americas Market
