Q&A With Harry Temkin From eBay on Seller Experiences & Post-Covid Opportunities

2020 whilst a challenging year for many people and businesses, but it was an incredible year for eCommerce merchants across the board. Many sellers and marketplaces achieved record-breaking growth and sales.

One of those marketplaces experiencing record growth amidst the pandemic is of course eBay. Over recent times they have been through several significant changes, some met with hesitation and others met with huge praise from sellers.

Something that cannot be denied is the huge host of seller tools that eBay released over the past 12 months, all aimed at helping sellers succeed on the eBay platform.

To find out more about eBay’s direction through the pandemic and beyond as well as what they are looking to do to continue supporting sellers we have an exclusive interview with Harry Temkin, the Vice President and Head of Seller Experience at eBay.

Q. The effects of COVID-19 have been huge for businesses globally, with eCommerce becoming the saving grace for many. As things hopefully begin to return to normal how can eBay sellers continue the growth they experienced in 2020?

A. Last year, many sellers had to quickly pivot their business strategies to stay competitive, and many who embraced eCommerce saw significant growth because of it. When these businesses transitioned to a completely online selling experience through eBay, they were given access to new tools and resources to help manage their business, evaluate their strategy and adapt to shifting consumer trends. Looking ahead, all of these tools will continue to be available for our sellers and will help them make informed business decisions on how to best serve their customers moving forward. eBay will continue innovating and investing in tools that meet the needs of our sellers, helping them to continue growing their business.

Q. From eBay’s perspective what do you see as the largest opportunities for sellers in 2021 and beyond?

A. We think sellers could really benefit in selling pre-owned products on the platform. Findings from our first annual Recommerce Report revealed that 72% of U.S. eBay sellers believe buying pre-owned products has become more common and frequent in recent years, with technology and electronic pre-owned goods securing maximum sales. This trend is showcased through our certified refurbished experience, where we continue to see strong velocity as buyers prioritize sustainable and cost-efficient shopping. We’ve seen that eBay buyers (especially younger generations) love purchasing lightly used products at low prices rather than buying new, as well as free shipping, extended warranties, and extended returns.

We’re also seeing strong growth in our vertical markets like luxury watches and sneakers, where we’ve launched Authenticity Guarantee to protect sellers and allow buyers to shop with confidence, and we see significant potential in trading cards sales. This category of shopping bodes well with buyers who are interested in collectible and rare items and could be a good opportunity for sellers to lean in on.

Q. Across the US and the UK, 2020 meant a lot of people were spending more time at home and because of that resulted in them starting their own businesses selling products on eBay. Is eBay confident that if things return to normal they will be able to retain these new eBay sellers?

A. We have made great progress on our tech-led reimagination of eBay and delivered strong Q1 results this year. Our playbook to grow the core is working and our innovations are rolling out to more markets throughout the year, so we’re confident that we’ll be able to retain new eBay sellers and buyers by increasing customer satisfaction and delivering on our core strategy.

We are focused on significantly reducing complexity for our customers, which will help maximize value and drive sustainable growth. We offer our sellers valuable tools to help manage their business, improve listing quality and gain insights into industry trends. For example, our new image listing tool for top-selling trading cards can reduce time to list by up to 75%. We’ve also set up coded coupons for our sellers and now include QR coupon codes on packing slips, which will help drive repeat buyers. We believe these kinds of innovations will continue to increase seller satisfaction as we strive to be the platform of choice for sellers.

Q. In 2020 eBay released a number of tools to sellers such as ‘Time Away’ and ‘Offer to Buyers’ which from the numbers released recently have been very well received. Can you tell us if eBay is working on any new seller tools to help sellers or have you identified any more pain points you’re looking to alleviate?

A. We’ve seen great success in the seller tools we’ve enabled, and we are continuing to innovate on our sellers’ behalf to help solve their needs. We saw tremendous sales of trading cards in the first quarter, with active buyers of trading cards doubling and existing buyers purchasing more items at higher prices than they were last year. Trading cards sellers have access to image-based scanning and shipping tools to simplify and expedite shipping, and we plan to launch more innovations for trading cards throughout this year.

We were also inspired by the success of Promoted Listings over the past few years, and are investing aggressively in further ways to innovate here. We reached $1 billion of advertising revenue in 2020 primarily through Promoted Listings, which leverages a risk-free CPA model for fixed-price inventory. To capture our next billion, we are running multiple initiatives, including an ad product for auctions and cost-per-click capabilities. We are also exploring a new capability that expands seller exposure by increasing off eBay traffic to Promoted Listings.

From a buyer perspective, eBay recognizes that buyers like to customize their items. Beginning in June in the UK and Germany, eBay will offer new capabilities to all sellers to offer personalized goods in categories such as home, fashion, and jewelry. This new tool will allow buyers to find and enter specific customization requests to the seller, which was a manual process in the past.

Q. It feels like eBay over the past few years has gone through perhaps one of its largest periods of change internally. After some great 2020 results, what are you working on to maintain this momentum going forward?

A. We are continuing to invest and push into vertical markets after seeing our sneaker and watch sales grow exponentially. We’ve just had another quarter of sneaker sales in triple-digit growth, and 38% growth in watches. Right now, we’re pushing into two new verticals: collectible trading cards and personalized and customized merchandise. Vertical markets help highlight our best-selling products on the platform so that dedicated buyers can easily access what they’re looking for, and will be a big focus for eBay moving forward.

Thank You Harry

We want to thank Harry for taking the time to answer our questions and share his insight into how eBay is focused on helping sellers succeed on the marketplace.

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