eBay Turns to Classifieds to Grow Marketplace Sales

eBay is turning to its classifieds sites like Gumtree to grow eBay Marketplace sales. The latest evidence that this is an important strategy for the company came during last week’s eBay developers conference.

The VP of eBay’s Developer Ecosystem Gail Frederick gave a demo to attendees of the eBay Connect DevCon on its Buy API. She showed how on Gumtree.com, a search for toaster served up eBay listings mixed with Gumtree results. A click into the listing opens the eBay listing, enabling buyers to make a purchase effortlessly.

The head of eBay’s classifieds division Alessandro Coppo shared the strategy publicly in late 2016. “In the first half of 2017,” he wrote at the time, “we will scale our structured data and predictive model programs, exposing millions of relevant eBay listings on our classifieds sites around the world. Classifieds buyers will benefit from a seamless experience, finding eBay items in their search results and having the ability to purchase them on eBay with or without an eBay account.”

And earlier this year, eBay CEO Devin Wenig reiterated the strategy in his letter to shareholders. “By sharing the broad selection of eBay Marketplace inventory with our Classifieds sites, our Classifieds buyers have access to more selection, and our Marketplace sellers have access to more buyers, thereby increasing sales velocity. I was encouraged to see our Classifieds and core eBay platforms adding significant value by working closely together in 2017.”

Interestingly eBay has had far more success with classifieds in Europe and Canada than in the US.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.