The latest eBay news making rounds since its announcement is eBay’s quarterly earnings report 2021. The profits reported have left everyone speechless. The quarterly report being considered the best performance recorded covers the Q1 and Q2 from 2021 for eBay. It showcased the fastest growth in eBay’s revenues since 2005. eBay also experienced one of the best quarters in terms of the expansion in active global user base as well as sellers.
What was eBay’s Q1 Earning Forecast?
According to the estimates set by Trefis, eBay’s revenues for fiscal Q1 2021 were expected to be $2.99 billion (approx value), just above the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion.
eBay Earnings: First Quarter Report
- The GMV saw a growth of 24%, way beyond what was expected for this quarter. The eBay revenue grew by 38% to $3 Billion, primarily influenced by payments and advertising.
- Active sellers grew 8%, amounting to 20 million sellers globally, while active buyers rose by 7% to 187 million actives globally. eBay has added 13 million buyers to the ecosystem since the beginning of 2020.
- Managed payments saw a migration of 4 million sellers moving towards easy and straightforward management of prices with eBay. The quarter also saw eBay managed costs taking over 52% of volume in terms of transactions. It shows significant growth over 38% last quarter.
- The rollouts in France, Italy, and Spain performed faster, inspiring eBay to plan to launch managed payments to Greater China this quarter. The remaining markets are to be covered by the middle of the year.
- The introduction of managed payments has resulted in a drop in cases of unpaid items by 80% (approximately).
- In Q1, promoted listings contributed approximately $224 million of revenue. It resulted in advertising growth volume up 58%. The promoted listing saw more than 1.3 million sellers promoting about 400 million listings during the first quarter of the fiscal year.
- Beginning next month, eBay plans to offer personalized goods in the U.K. and Germany to all sellers under categories of fashion, home, and jewelry.
- In Q1 of 2021, eBay delivered a non-GAAP margin of 33%. The growth was up by approximately 140 basis points YoY, driven by advertising and volume, the impact of managed payments growth, partially offset marketing reinvestments, and FX.
- Moving forward in Q1, eBay had a robust quarter of cash generation with $855 million of free cash flow, a 65% increase year on year.
eBay Earnings: Second Quarter Report
- GMV of $22.1 billion went down by 7% in Q2 of 2021 for eBay. Whereas, the second quarter experienced revenue of $2.7 billion for eBay, which was up 14%.
- eBay reported that it returned $1.6 billion to shareholders in Q2. It includes $121 million paid in cash dividends and $1.5 billion of share repurchases.
- eBay also announced the sale of 80.01% of eBay Korea’s business to Emart. The deal was made for approximately $3 billion.
- eBay sealed the deal for Classifieds’ business to Adevinta on June 24th for $13.3 billion. The transaction included 540 million shares of Adevinta stock (44% ownership) along with $2.5 billion in cash and approximately.
- eBay Agreed to sell approximately 135 million shares of eBay’s Adevinta stock to Permira for over $2.4 billion, reducing our ownership of Adevinta to 33%.
- eBay generated $1.0 billion of operating cash flow. And $910 million got accounted for free cash flow through its operations.
- Annual active buyers count saw a decline of 2%. Meanwhile, the Annual active sellers for eBay grew by 5%.
- eBay Announced pricing of $2.5 billion senior unsecured notes offering on May 3rd, 2021.
Performance of Top vertical categories
eBay saw an outstanding performance in categories prevalent among others in the recent past. The evergreen Sneakers, Wristwatches, and the Trading Cards saw.
#1. Sneakers
Since the launch of eBay’s Authentication Guarantee program in 2020, eBay witnessed buyer satisfaction reach 80%. Sales of sneakers grew at an exponential rate once again this quarter.
After seeing tremendous success in the U.S., eBay plans to expand its services to other major markets like the U.K., Australia, and Canada in the current quarter.
#2. Luxury Watches
The luxury watches saw a growth from 16% in Q4 to 38% in Q1 in the U.S. The authenticated items have reached customer satisfaction levels nearing 90%. As a result, sellers are listing more and experiencing a higher price realization. At the same time, the buyers showed trends of visiting eBay more and spending more. Like sneaker enthusiasts on eBay, luxury watch buyers spend thousands of dollars on various other categories on eBay.
#3. Trading Cards
Trading cards are an essential aspect of eBay’s collectibles business. Also, eBay is a market leader in the Trading cards category having the most comprehensive selections available across all price levels. Above all, the GMV in the U.S. for trading cards topped at $1 billion for the First Quarter. It represents over half of 2020’s record-setting volume.
The number of Active buyers of trading cards recorded twice the growth. However, it was also noticed that the existing buyers purchased items at much higher prices than last year.
What Next: Should you Sell on eBay?
Owing to the better-than-expected performance, eBay has definitely become a marketplace to head towards. Connecting millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets eBay has become an inspiring ecommerce experience for our buyers, sellers, and developers.
The stats have proved that with every passing day people come to eBay to experience their entrepreneurial gains and in the process acquire new skills and access to new markets.
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Embracing innovation has been a cornerstone of eBay’s growth over the past 25 years, which encompasses technology and financial growth. We’ve seen various updates on eBay covering AI, natural language processing, managed payments, and machine translation that proves its mantle.
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eBay Q1 Q2 Quarterly Report: Key Takeaways
In conclusion, the earnings for Q1 and Q2 of 2021 recorded impressive growth for eBay just like the yearly performance of 2020. With stimulating growth, eBay revenue surpassed the estimates of $2.97Billion and $2.7 Billion. The active global buyers also saw an increase to 159 million active buyers at the end of Q2. The major vertical categories like Luxury watches, trading cards, and sneakers also saw one of the best performances. Moreover, trading cards surpassing $1 Billion GMV for the first time became a remarkable feat achieved in eBay’s first quarter of 2021.
The Q1 Q2 results of 2021 show that eBay promises to deliver even better results on all aspects of its long-term plans. Furthermore, it makes eBay an adequate marketplace for sellers like you looking to up their game and expand to multi-channel selling scenarios.