eBay Sellers Hunt For Listings On Facebook Marketplace After Meta Partnership Announcement
Sellers are on the lookout trying to spot their listings on Facebook Marketplace in the weeks following major eBay and Meta partnership announcement, but so far they've come up empty handed.
The two companies revealed they would be testing a new way for eBay items to be shown on Facebook in the US, Germany, and France starting January 8th, sending eBay's stock price soaring to its highest point in almost 2 years.
Liz Morton
eBay told sellers that their listings would be shown on Facebook Marketplace, but all parts of the transaction would still take place on eBay and be covered by eBay's policies as well as buyer and seller protections.
There's no action required on your part. Simply keep listing on eBay as usual to enjoy the benefits of broader visibility and the chance to reach a new audience of buyers through Facebook Marketplace.
The entire process, from product inquiries to payments, will continue to be securely handled through eBay. That means your transactions, order details, and seller protections will all remain unchanged.
Stay tuned for more updates as we work to expand the number of eBay listings that can appear on Facebook Marketplace, opening the door to new buyers and opportunities.
eBay also provided the following FAQs about how the Facebook Marketplace partnership will work:
What happens when an item sells on Facebook Marketplace?
When an item from eBay sells through Facebook Marketplace, buyers will be redirected to eBay to finalize their purchase, following the same process as when they buy directly from eBay.com.
Additionally, these sales will be protected by eBay's Money Back Guarantee and all other applicable eBay policies and protections.
Which categories are going to be shown on Facebook Marketplace?
Listings from a variety of categories will appear on Facebook Marketplace based on factors including current shopping trends and listing quality.
Do I need to do anything to enable my listings to show up on Facebook marketplace?
eBay is always looking for new ways to drive traffic to your listings. We already work with a number of partner sites to show your inventory to interested buyers.
As long as your account is in good standing, your listings could appear on any of these partners, including Facebook Marketplace, based on user interest, shopping trends, and listing quality.
Will my items only be shown to local buyers?
Facebook Marketplace shows a mix of local and shipped items. That means your listings could appear to buyers outside of your local market, based on the shipping preferences that you set on eBay.
Those details led many sellers to believe their items would simply be shown in Marketplace alongside items listed directly on Facebook, with a simple click through to eBay to complete the transaction - but over 2 weeks later, some say they haven't seen any evidence of any such thing.
One eBay community member even created a humorous post in the style of a safari expedition journal entry, detailing their hunt for these elusive listings as they had diligently searched Marketplace to try to find any eBay items and had come up short.
my-cottage-books-and-antiques
From the Diary of Major Bascom Holcomb, somewhere in the wilds of Facebook Marketplace:
"Day 16.
It is good to be reminded that this is Day 16, for I confess, without my journal, I would believe we have been at this far longer. The lads are growing restless. They have said nothing to me, but I have heard the rumblings: "We should turn back. This expedition is folly--there is nothing to be found!"
We began rationing provisions nine days ago, and it is clear, the men are right. We will need to turn back soon, our elusive quarry still unseen, not even a track or droppings. None of us anticipated this expedition would be more than a jaunt for rugged, experienced explorers such as ourselves. It is turning into a... nightmare"
On 8th January, 2025, ebay announced that ebay listings would be appearing in Facebook Marketplace. Major Holcomb's Expedition set out the very next day, entering the largely unmapped interior of the Jungle that is Facebook Marketplace.
Well equipped, with local guides added to his small but experienced force, and with the blessings of The Great and Powerful Zuckerborg. Loud "Huzzahs" were heard from the crowds as his team marched to their destiny. To date, he has failed to discover a single ebay listing.
Have YOU seen any?
Other sellers replied with appreciation for the humor - but none had seen any eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace either.
While it's understandable how someone reading eBay's announcement could assume this test will display eBay listings alongside of and in the same way as items listed directly on Facebook, notably neither company every really said that directly - leaving a lot of ambiguity about what exactly this partnership may really mean and how much it might actually boost GMV for eBay.
eBay previously leveraged Facebook's ecommerce offerings to host live shopping events in 2021 and the eBay Facebook page also previously included a Shop section featuring items that directed to eBay for checkout, until Facebook forced Shops to start using onsite checkout in 2023, so my initial thought was this partnership might bring something like that Shop section back.
But the eBay Marketplace profile still shows zero items for sale at this time, so it doesn't appear to be as simple as products from eBay being displayed on Marketplace the same way they would be for anyone manually listing items directly on Facebook.
One other possibility is that items included in this partnership may be shown on Marketplace more like ads directing users through to eBay, but if so, it's not clear how this would be anything new or different worthy of such a big announcement.
Facebook already inserts sponsored ads into Marketplace search results - like this one for Amazon:
Temu also appears often in these sponsored ad slots and it appears that just about anyone - including eBay - was already eligible for these ads, assuming they were willing to pay, so it wouldn't make much sense if this is what the partnership would be all about.
Digging deeper into eBay's Ad Library page on Facebook shows an interesting series of ads which appear to direct to specific individual eBay listings rather than the broader category specific ads which are also in the library and are part of eBay's Things. People. Love Campaign.
The Ad Library shows several of these multiple listing type ads being active in the EU since November 2024 - which would fit the timing of the EU Commission decision against Meta for anticompetitive practices that served as a catalyst for this partnership - and in the US since the beginning of January.
The ad library also shows a notation that these ads use one of Meta's dynamic products where advertisers provide a combination of images, text, and platform-specific preferences.
Again it's not entirely clear if these ads are part of the "new" eBay Meta partnership or if they are perhaps simply part of eBay's existing Offsite Ads promoted listing product or something else.
But it is clear the items being shown in these ads don't appear to be intentionally selected and curated by eBay's marketing department - it's hard to imagine branding professionals would choose these listings as the best representation for eBay Motors, for example.
However, I have also seen similar ads while simply scrolling Facebook (not specifically in the Marketplace section) which display ~50 items, each directly linking through to that listing on eBay.
If these ads do represent what sellers can expect from this eBay Meta partnership, it's not nearly as exciting as the announcement may have made it seem and the possibilities for cross over traffic and sales may be more limited than the hype would suggest.
If that's not what eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace will look like, then it would be smart for both eBay and Meta to provide additional information ASAP including a demo with screenshots so that both sellers and investors know what to expect from this partnership as the text expands to include more listings.
What do you think eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace will look like in this new partnership and have you seen any in the wild? Let us know in the comments below!
