eBay Pursues Aggressive GMV Targets As Live Collectibles Selling Competition Heats Up
Two and a half years after initially launching eBay Live, the company is finally getting serious about ramping up livestream selling Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) as Collectibles competition heats up.
eBay Live launched in June 2022 and while a few new categories have been added in that time, as well as introduction in the UK, and availability on both desktop and mobile, many sellers have been frustrated with the glacial pace of rollout and the restrictive application process - with some moving to competing platforms like Whatnot instead.
Earlier this month, eBay announced the expansion of live selling to pre-loved clothing categories and put out a job ad looking to hire an Incentive Program Manager specifically to "set up new onboarding processes for Live sellers, design incentive programs to increase streaming hours, and develop seller communication programs."
Liz Morton
Now, another job ad reveals eBay is looking for an eBay Live, Business Manager - Collectibles and they aren't pulling any punches about the pressure this role will be under to deliver on "aggressive GMV targets" with the ambitious goal of 10x-ing that part of the business in the next year.
The ad was uncharacteristically candid in admitting that in order to achieve those aggressive GMV targets, they need someone who not only understand where the platform is today, but also how it needs to change.
You will work closely with our sellers to help them succeed on this new platform, and be responsible for delivering on achievable (but aggressive!) GMV targets. You will be responsible for advocating for your sellers, for understanding our platform and how it needs to change, and helping us build a program that scales.
And the candidness didn't stop there - both job ads make mention of coming up with solutions and workarounds to problems, of which there have been plenty in the implementation of eBay Live.
For example, a recent Elton John Charity Event turned into an embarrassing debacle with terrible pixelation, extreme lag and buffering distracting and disrupting the event.
Liz Morton
Those tech failures are also clearly on eBay's mind in the seller application process as well, as they admit eBay Live doesn't "currently support some use cases that you may be used to seeing on other Live platforms" and they're looking to recruit tech savvy merchants who are "comfortable dealing with technical challenges and creating workarounds" because they will "likely encounter friction" in the product experience.
All of that might be understandable and could maybe even be forgiven if this was a newly launched product, but it is absolutely inexcusable that this 2+ year old "beta" test is still in such a state that disclaimers like that are needed.
No matter how much media manipulation they attempt to try to "position eBay as a top-tier technology company", it's clear that technical misexecution is still a huge problem at the company and executive leadership in that area from Chief Technology Officer Mazen Rawashdeh and Chief Product Office Eddie Garcia is failing to keep up with the competition.
Liz Morton
Whoever takes on this Business Manager role will be in a tough position trying to convince tech savvy sellers to tolerate the "friction" of a buggy experience that doesn't cover needed use cases and requires "workarounds" instead of just using their existing social media accounts or other livestream selling options.
Meanwhile, competitor Fanatics who launched their Live platform in 2023 just acquired European live shopping platform Voggt with plans to expand into the UK in 2025.
With more than a half-million members, Voggt – founded in 2021 – is the market leader in Europe for the live selling of sports collectibles and trading card games (TCG), with a dedicated creator community selling to their audience in real time.
Fanatics Live launched in 2023 with a focus on live selling of sports collectibles, known in the collectibles space as “breaking,” and has quickly established a highly engaged U.S. audience.
With this acquisition the platform begins its much-anticipated expansion internationally, specifically in France and Germany, growing its community of passionate collectors. According to CEO Nick Bell, Fanatics Live will launch in the United Kingdom in 2025.
The broader Fanatics company – which recently announced a multi-year trading-card partnership with the Premier League – partners with more than 900 sport clubs and organizations globally, including: UEFA, the French Football Association, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Chelsea, NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, International Olympic Committee and Formula One.
And livestream shopping site Whatnot started Q4 off with a bang, releasing their first State Of Livestream Selling Report and revealing over $2 Billion in sales made through the platform so far in 2024.
Liz Morton
eBay is also facing stiff competition in the more traditional Collectibles resale space as Walmart's presence at New York Comic Con showcased their initiatives to take a larger piece of market share in this critical category - with the help of several high level ex-eBay employees.
Liz Morton
The sudden focus on GMV comes as eBay faces questions about whether their "enthusiast buyer focus vertical" strategy is really working and pressure to deliver on promises to investors that the company will return to GMV growth by the end of the year.
Liz Morton
I won't be surprised if we hear analysts call out lagging live selling efforts during eBay's Q3 earnings call on October 30th - but even if they find rockstar talent to fill these new eBay Live management positions, will it be too little, too late to catch up to the competition?
