Under CEO Jamie Iannone, the 30-year-old e-commerce veteran is leveraging decades of data to outpace tech giants and reinvent the resale market.
- A Strategic Turnaround: Since 2020, eBay has pivoted from shedding businesses to aggressively investing in AI, resulting in a 75% stock surge that has outperformed Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon this year.
- Unlocking Inventory: New AI tools, such as “magical listing,” are helping amateur sellers easily monetize the estimated $4,000 of unused goods in the average American home.
- Modernizing the Hunt: By utilizing natural language chatbots and vast historical data, eBay is making its complex marketplace accessible to casual shoppers while maintaining the human connection of the resale community.
When Jamie Iannone took the helm as eBay’s chief executive in early 2020, the outlook for one of the internet’s original shopping sites was uncertain. The company was in the midst of a leadership shakeup, shedding various business units under pressure from activist investors, and had recently surrendered its title as the second-largest e-commerce platform to Walmart. While the Covid-19 pandemic provided a temporary boost in traffic, Iannone recognized that long-term survival required a more fundamental evolution.
Today, that evolution is in full swing, driven by a heavy investment in artificial intelligence. The strategy appears to be paying dividends: eBay’s stock has surged 75% since 2020, outpacing tech heavyweights like Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon this year alone. By introducing five new AI features in just the last year—including a partnership with OpenAI—eBay is proving that a 30-year-old marketplace can still learn new tricks.
The Age Advantage: Data as a Weapon
Reinventing a legacy platform is a massive undertaking, particularly when facing stiff competition from the “everything store” utility of Amazon, the fast-fashion dominance of Shein, and the niche appeal of Etsy and Poshmark. Emarketer data highlights the challenge: eBay’s market share has shrunk from over 7% in 2016 to less than 3% today as the field has crowded.
However, Iannone argues that eBay’s age is actually its greatest asset in the AI era. While every retailer is rushing to implement AI tools, eBay possesses a unique advantage: three decades of product listings and customer interactions. With 2.4 billion active listings and 134 million buyers, the platform holds a treasure trove of training data that newer competitors simply cannot match. “We have really unique data,” Iannone noted in a recent interview, emphasizing the breadth of categories the platform transacts in.
Empowering the “Accidental Entrepreneur”
A major focus of eBay’s AI push is the seller experience. The pandemic birthed a wave of “accidental entrepreneurs”—people realizing they could monetize household items while stuck at home. eBay estimates that the average American possesses between $3,000 and $4,000 worth of unused products, a massive reservoir of potential inventory that often ends up in the trash.
To tap into this, eBay introduced the “magical listing” tool. This feature allows sellers to simply take a photo of an item, after which the AI automatically generates product descriptions and details. Furthermore, generative AI image technology can professionally enhance these photos, transforming a picture of a doll on a dusty garage shelf into a polished listing that looks like it is sitting on a clean table.
Additionally, an AI assistant launched in August for US and UK sellers helps streamline customer service. The tool can automatically answer common buyer inquiries, such as shipping destinations, by pulling information directly from the product description. These innovations are designed to lower the barrier to entry for casual sellers, a move that Barclays analysts noted is “gaining real traction.”
Streamlining the Treasure Hunt
For buyers, the challenge on eBay has always been navigation. Historically, the platform favored “enthusiasts”—the 70% of customers who know exactly how to manipulate search filters to find rare items. To expand its appeal to the general public, the company is rolling out “eBay.ai,” a shopping agent that allows users to search using natural language.
Rather than struggling with keywords, a customer can describe what they are looking for conversationally, and the bot recommends products based on the dialogue. While currently available to a limited group, this tool is essential for eBay to compete with the AI shopping agents of Google, Daydream, and Amazon—whose own chatbot is projected to contribute $10 billion in additional annual sales.
The Financial Picture and the Human Element
The financial results of this strategy are promising. In the September quarter, eBay reported a 9% year-on-year revenue increase to $2.8 billion, a growth rate higher than Walmart and Etsy, and on par with Amazon’s North America sales. Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), a critical metric of total transaction value, grew 10%.
Iannone is exploring further integration with OpenAI, potentially joining their program for instant checkout within ChatGPT to make listings searchable “both on eBay and off of eBay.”
Amidst this technological overhaul, eBay is careful not to automate away its soul. The recent acquisition of Tise, a Norway-based social marketplace, signals a commitment to the social aspect of secondhand shopping. Iannone insists that the goal of AI is to facilitate, not replace, the unique buyer-seller relationships that define the platform.