eBay Q1 2025 Pre-Earnings Commentary & Highlights

Liz Morton
Liz Morton


Comments

eBay is set to report Q1 2025 earnings April 30 at 5:30 PM Eastern. Take a look back at highlights from Q1 and what's happening so far in Q2 2025!

Leadership Changes & Corporate News

eBay announced and closed their first acquisition of 2025, buying auto auction site Caramel to streamline and simplify the vehicle buying experience.

eBay Acquires Car Auction Site Caramel To Streamline & Simplify The Vehicle Buying Experience
eBay announces first acquisition of 2025, buying car auction site Caramel to provide streamlined & simplified vehicle buying experience.

Business development leaders continue to leave eBay to take on roles at overseas rivals Tik Tok and Temu, while Walmart's talent recruiting strategy poaching key personnel from eBay to bolster its initiatives to compete in crucial high value categories has expanded to include Motors Parts and Accessories.

eBay Loses Motors Events Manager, NASCAR Driver Sarah Burgess To Walmart In Race For Enthusiast Buyers
Walmart continues challenging eBay in enthusiast category race with Motors Events Manager & NASCAR racer Sarah Burgess latest to switch sides.

eBay is looking for a new VP International Markets as David Ramadge has left after a total of 12 years at the company and they've finally named a new Head of Financial and Crisis Communications with internal promotion of Maddy Martinez, who previously handled comms and corporate affairs at beleaguered subsidiary TCGPlayer.

eBay Gears Up for Crisis? New Job Posting Signals Potential Trouble Ahead
eBay is looking for a new Crisis & Financial Communications manager, revealing company may be in for rough year as legal, regulatory & earnings scrutiny heats up.

Labor relations troubles continue as TCGUnion-CWA workers fight for a fair contractemployee rights firm Don Bivens investigates potential 401(K) benefit violationsallegations of discrimination and retaliation surface both in the US and Ireland, and sneaker authenticators file class action alleging Fair Labor Standards Act and New York Labor Law violations.

eBay Labor Troubles Continue: Ex-Employee Takes Retaliation Complaint To Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission
Ex-eBay employee raises retaliation concerns to Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission, claiming he was forced to quit after being unfairly punished for workplace complaints.

The Department of Justice has decided to drop their appeal of Section 230 dismissal in EPA case which sought to hold eBay liable for illegal items sold on their site.

Meanwhile, the next steps in the potential ~$500M eBay cyberstalking scandal lawsuit hang on ex-Security Director Jim Baugh's testimony and alleged CIA background with new details in the case raising serious questions about historic and ongoing corporate governance, compliance, disclosure and ethics failures at the company.

eBay Governance Crisis: Cyberstalking Case Ethics, Compliance & Disclosure Failures Call For Shareholder Scrutiny
As eBay cyberstalking civil case continues to trial, new questions emerge about corporate governance, compliance, disclosure & ethics failures at the company.

And of course the big topic on everyone's mind - what will be the impact of looming tariff and de minimis exemption changes on China cross border trade?

eBay Stock Downgraded As Tariff Worries Mount Ahead Of Q1 Earnings
Analysts downgrade eBay stock as concerns about impacts of tariffs & de minimis changes for China imports mount ahead of Q1 earnings

eBay made multiple stealth changes to Promoted Listings ad rate requirements in Q4 2024 as well as major changes to ad attribution in Germany in Q1 2025 that exponentially expanded the number of sales which will collect ad fees.

eBay Expands Promoted Listings Ad Attribution In Germany - Will US Be Next?
eBay makes major changes to Promoted Listings ad attribution in Germany, expanding number of sales which will collect ad fees - will US be next?

Those changes may have spooked sellers and slowed ad adoption rates, forcing eBay to crank up ad discounts in Q1 while new listing form insights show 60-70%+ ad usage saturation has already been reached in some categories.

eBay’s International Promoted Listings Push: Is Seller Ad Spend Tolerance Waning?
eBay cranks up discounts to entice sellers to try Promoted Listings ads - is tolerance for increasing rates & expanding attribution waning?

But the discounts don't stop there - in both Q1 and Q2, eBay has increasingly turned to legacy discounting tricks in an effort to goose GMV and Active and Enthusiast Buyer stats.

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.

UK C2C Transformation: Buyer Fees, Private Seller Payment Changes, and Simple Delivery Managed Shipping

eBay was set to introduce Buyer Fees in the UK on February 4th as part of their plan to remonetize purchases after dropping private seller fees in October, but a last minute change to a phased roll out wasn't enough to prevent an embarrassing failure to launch from creating chaos on the platform.

eBay’s February 4th Failure To Launch: No Buyer Fees, Missing Pre-Owned Conditions & App Outrage
eBay’s February 4th 2025 plans foiled by failure to launch Buyer Fees in UK, missing pre-owned clothing conditions & forced app update outrage.

Once the buyer fees did start to roll out, confusion continued as the math didn't quite add up and fee-averse buyers immediately began sharing clever workarounds to try to avoid paying higher fee-inclusive prices.

Private seller pushback against payment policy changes has also been fierce, as eBay is now holding their payouts until after delivery confirmation - a move that also appears to be being deployed on a much more limited basis in the US.

eBay's launch of mandatory use of Simple Delivery managed shipping for UK private sellers is causing confusion and chaos as post offices initially refused to accept some packages, sellers question whether they will really be protected for loss and damage in transit, and eBay exempts items under £10 in some sub-categories.

eBay UK Simple Delivery Update: Custom Postage Still Allowed For Items Under £10 In Some Sub-Categories
eBay UK updates Simple Delivery mandate for private sellers, allowing items under £10 in some sub-categories to continue using custom postage.

AI Updates, Focus Categories & Other Initiatives

eBay has finally rolled out Magical AI Listing to all private or personal accounts in the US, UK & Germany after year and half delay - but in my initial testing, the new tool completely failed to identify items from an image and offered no significant advantages over the regular manual listing process.

Does eBay Magical Listing AI Tech Live Up To Hype After Year And A Half Delay?
eBay expands Magical Listing AI tech to all private/personal accounts in US, UK & Germany - after 1.5 year delay, does it live up to the hype?

eBay is leveraging OpenAI's new agent Operator offering to act as a virtual assistant capable of autonomously performing tasks across the internet, including online shopping, and directs users to eBay for unique inventory finds - is it really an innovative tech breakthrough or just more AI hype?

eBay’s OpenAI Operator Agent Collaboration - AI Innovation Or Hype?
eBay’s collab with OpenAI Operator promises a new paradigm of discovery & shopping - is it an innovative tech breakthrough or just more AI hype?

Users are finally starting to see eBay Facebook Marketplace partnership listings in the wild but erroneous item details added by eBay AI description summaries raise serious questions about liability for false advertising and seller protection for Item Not As Described claims.

Sellers Fear eBay Facebook Marketplace Listings May Increase INAD Claims Due To Erroneous AI Summaries
Sellers alarmed as eBay’s use of AI description summaries in Facebook Marketplace Partner listings increases risk of item not as described claims.

The Top Star sneaker buyer loyalty program is quietly ending amidst broader strategy shift.

eBay has opened a new sneaker authentication center in Louisville, KY expanding labor-centric warehouse operations to lower cost of living/lower wage, right to work state amidst increasing employee relations challenges.

eBay Opens New KY Sneaker Authentication Facility As Labor Troubles Linger
eBay hiring ops & HR talent for new Louisville, KY sneaker authentication center as physical warehouse footprint increases labor challenges.

A recent update to eBay's Privacy Policies hints at new Blockchain technology and AI integrations possible coming soon and sellers in Australia now have access to AI Responses for Messages, using eBay.AI to automatically respond to buyer questions using information already available in listing and order details. 

eBay Australia Introduces AI Responses For User Messaging
eBay Australia April 2025 Seller Update introduces AI Responses to automatically answer buyer questions with info from listing & order details.

Longtime eBay mega-seller Rick Probstein is launching BYD, a live selling platform aimed directly at competing with eBay Live, Whatnot, Fanatics Collect and more as livestream competition heats up.

eBay Mega-Seller Probstein To Launch Competing Live Selling Platform For Sports Cards & Memorabilia
Longtime eBay mega-seller Rick Probstein announces BYD sports collectibles live selling site to compete with eBay Live, Whatnot, Fanatics & more.

eBay has introduced a new Ambassador program giving buyers, sellers, and content creators opportunity to earn affiliate commissions.

eBay Ambassador Program Offers Buyers, Sellers & Content Creators Self-Service Affiliate Opportunity
eBay launches new Ambassador program, giving buyers, sellers & smaller content creators easy, self-service opportunity to earn affiliate commission.

And eBay's January 2025 Seller Update revealed Final Value Fees would be increasing across most categories on the platform, effective February 14th.

Tests & Technical Issues

eBay is testing moving category navigation breadcrumbs to the bottom of the item page, forcing users to scroll past hundreds of Promoted Listings ads to see critical item information.

eBay Moves Category To Bottom Of Listings, Forcing Endless Scroll Past Ads To See Critical Item Information
eBay moves category navigation breadcrumbs to bottom of listings, forcing users to scroll past 100s of Promoted Listings ads to see critical info.

Auction buyers have expressed frustration as A/B testing of changes to bid increments for lower priced items forces some to pay higher prices than others.

eBay Tests Increasing Auction Bid Increments For Low Priced Items
Some eBay users report issues with eBay auction bid increments raising question once again - is it a glitch, a test, or an unannounced change?

And eBay continues to be plagued with near daily business impacting technical issues including missing email notifications for sales and messages; Listing Template, App Crashing, Buy It Now, Add to Cart, Offer & Watchlist problems; broken search and sorting options; and an embarrassing annually recurring missing listings glitch that shows after almost 30 years in business, eBay still hasn't figured how to handle the fact that February is a short month.

eBay Listings Disappear In Annual Recurring Glitch
eBay sellers are once again reporting listings set to renew today are instead disappearing in apparent annual recurring February glitch.

That's it for the eBay Q1 2025 pre-earnings highlights - catch up on commentary from Q4 2024 earnings and stay tuned for more coverage after the call from Value Added Resource!

eBayEarnings

Liz Morton Twitter Facebook
LinkedIn

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 PlaceholdercoachgutYesterday
Can you export to a CSV file? I need a way to organize my inventory in the order I would like to sell them.
Avatar Placeholderfoxxresell2 days ago
Maybe if they didn't blindly ban sellers and provided customer service this would not be happening. I am not sure any humans work at etsy. After I was wrong banned, I had no way of contacting anyone and even sent paper letters (remember those?). They were all returned to me.
AvatarLiz Morton2 days ago
This article was written three months when the GSP rates went up, then back down (but not all the way to where they had been previously) due to a glitch and/or tariff changes at that time.

The rates have now gone back up again because the de minimis exemption for items made in China ended on May 2, 2025 - and it also appears that if the seller didn't specify the Country of Origin, eBay may be defaulting to the assumption that it was made in China for the purposes of calculating the duties for the Global Shipping Program.

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/trump-ends-de-minimis-china-other-countries-to-follow/

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Sudden-dramatic-increase-in-global-shipping-price-after-winning/m-p/35064987/highlight/true#M520410