eBay’s Active Buyer Figures Hit Five-Year Low

The online retailer has recorded the lowest number of global Active Buyers in five years, reaching 159 million in Q2 2021. The last time the number of Active Buyers was at this level was 2016, and while the marketplace has seen significant dips in its figures before, particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, it began crawling back up only to fall once again.

From Q1 2020 of Q2 that same year, its number of total active buyers fell significantly from 174 million to 161 million but clawed back to 166 million by Q1 2021.

However, the online marketplace’s total revenue has experienced growth of nearly 19 percent in 2020, mainly due to the online acceleration during the pandemic. In fact, this is the first time the online platform has recorded growth since 2017.

At the time of the company’s release, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said that the business achieved ‘several’ important milestones in its ongoing transformation. “We remain relentlessly focused on accelerating our product innovation by harnessing the power of next-gen technology and creating a more seamless experience for sellers,” Iannone said. “We are delivering innovative category experiences for buyers and quickly evolving in our pursuit to be the best global marketplace to sell and buy.”

Across the globe, Amazon is surpassing eBay in revenue, doubling the latter’s revenue growth in 2020 and taking full advantage of the e-commerce boom accelerated by the pandemic. Despite this, eBay’s share prices have steadily increased across 2021, climbing 40.09 percent in the last six months. Similarly, it has recorded a 48.52 percent YoY increase in its share prices.

What About Australia?

In Australia, eBay has gained one million monthly active visitors, taking this number up to nearly 12 million. Locally, eBay is recording a 430 percent increase in ‘Australian Made’ searches, following the business’ priority shift to focus on key verticals, including fashion categories.

According to Roy Morgan research, there has been a major increase in preferences for Australian Made products. Ninety-three percent of Australian consumers say that they are more likely to buy Australian made products, up from 87 percent the year prior.

“Australian-made products have experienced a surge in support during 2020 with a large majority of 93 percent of Australians more likely to buy a product that is ‘made in Australia’, up six percentage points from 2019. Less than one percent of Australians say they are less likely to buy a product that is ‘made in Australia’ unchanged on a year ago,” explained Michele Levine, the CEO of Roy Morgan, in May this year.

It will be interesting to see if eBay’s push for Aus-made products will give the Active Buyer figure a push in FY22.

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