The current year is off to a great start, eBay CEO Devin Wenig told shareholders several times during a presentation at the company’s annual meeting this morning. He kept the focus away from eBay’s GMV growth rate and emphasized instead the growth in buyers and the return of capital to shareholders. (In addition to stock buybacks, eBay has begun issuing stock dividends).
“We’re pleased with the way 2019 has begun,” Wenig stated. He referred to eBay’s “3-year momentum,” showing total GMV and number of Active Buyers numbers (but not showing growth rates).
He used the term “economic democracy,” a term we don’t recall hearing from eBay before, in describing eBay’s purpose, stating it was highly motivating for eBay employees to enable small businesses to participate in the economy.
“We think the purpose of the business is to enable small business, it is to enable participation in the economy for so many that otherwise had not been able to. We empower people, and we create economic opportunity. It was the founding principle of this business when Pierre (Omidyar) created it, and it still lives and thrives today. And it’s highly motivational for the employees of the company. It’s more than just a statement of what we do. It’s a statement of who we are.”
The CEO also outlined six areas eBay was focusing on to transform the customer experience. One of those core initiatives is managed payments, an initiative begun last year. “We’re off to a great start, and now we’re 6 months into it, and we couldn’t be happier with where we are, and we think our customers feel the same way.”
While eBay is not a retailer itself, Wenig said it was moving to offer Retail Standards. “We’re very focused on retail standards. So what that really means is consumers want their package cheaply, they want it quick, and they want confidence that they’re going to get it, and they can return it if something goes wrong. And we’ve been making a lot of strides to guarantee delivery, to shrink delivery times and delivery cost, and to give consumers confidence when they shop in our marketplace.”
As for sellers, they can expect more data, the CEO said – and more protection. (See today’s EcommerceBytes Blog post for more on what Wenig had to say about forthcoming protections.)
He also discussed eBay’s Promoted Listing advertising program. “What I’m really pleased about is that the seller satisfaction with the programs is amongst the highest that I’ve ever seen for a new program that eBay has launched.”
“I think it’s going to be a very exciting year, we’re really pleased with the way the year has started, we’re pleased with our plans, and we’re pleased that we’ve been able to continue to grow the customer base, which has been a very big priority, of mine, in particular.”
You can find the transcript of the meeting and Wenig’s presentation (but not the Q&A session) on the SeekingAlpha website.
Comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog.
This man is a joke. Sellers satisfaction with promoted listings, Seriously? Unless your item is rare, hard to find and one of a kind, we have almost no choice but to use them in order to get a sale. My promoted listings were turned off, had no sales. Turned them on to 1% and almost instantly get sales. Pay to play and it is only going to get worse for all of us when the low percentages stop working…..This man needs to be shown the door, why cannot they not see the writing on the wall??
Real exciting year we are having. Just closed an anchor store and moved all listing to the trash hauler in the front of our house. One more store we changed from Anchor to regular store. That is the last store we have left. Yep a really exciting year. We have almost closed all 6 of our anchor stores and no longer even buy from ebay anymore. Amazon suits us just fine.
To bad the shareholders do not take the time to see what a mess fleecebay really is.
They blindly believe all the lies that the delusional ceo spews.
Wenig is a joke and a liar. Reading whatever he says in all of his quoted statements, not only in this article, you can be sure eBay is doing the opposite and the opposite is happening. You can’t believe one thing this charlatan claims. Just as you shouldn’t believe any numbers that eBay reports. They won’t allow themselves to show what an actual failure they’ve become, so they make up the numbers as they go. So sick of him claiming increased active buyers, marketplace improvements, seller protections, etc. None of that has happened or will ever happen. And all the while he gloats how he’s “delighted” in how they’re getting more revenue from fewer sellers and declining GMV. Wenig and eBay are a sham and a scam.
Please change the photo of Wenig.
He’s looking “Spockish” now……
(that “come hither” look is overplayed,
or maybe it’s ” What, me, worry? “)
:o)
Wait a minute.
Wenig says,……”We empower people, and we create economic opportunity.”
Ya, only to have Ebay REMOVE that “opportunity” through baseless high fees on everything including the illegal fee on shipping, leaving “sellers” with next to nothing. If you can’t run a household on the remains……
Ebay has, apparently, become “The sayer of So “, the gate keeper of economic opportunity.
THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING PEOPLE.
Dear Mr. Wenig and Board Members. Can you read? You are one of the 7 stocks to sell in June. Well done Devin.You should go have a drink in your bar.
Shares of online auction icon eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) are threatening to fall down and out of a four-month consolidation range as its 20-day moving average closed below its 50-day average for the first time since January. The prior gap near $31 is a likely downside target and would be worth a loss of roughly 14% from here. Rumors that the company could soon start accepting cryptocurrencies haven’t had the results the bulls were hoping for.
Mr Wenig. Today I ended 226 listings. Do you know why? Because your forced Good until Cancelled is destroying my business. My sales have dropped by 50% since you and your Brilliant (???) team decided this was the best for sellers.
IT IS NOT. There is one reason and one reason alone that you enacted this garbage and that was to grab more of your sellers money in fees. You are not going to be able to raise fees enough to cover the loss of thousands of sellers, and buyers I might add. It is happening every day.
So, I ended 226 listings so I could relist them as new and hopefully get some sales. I’m not doing it for you, I’m doing it for my business. If truth be told, I’m doing it in spite of you.
Who is this guy trying to fool, ebay’s traffic fell off a cliff this year, sales were down an average of 10% across the entire ebay marketplace for the month of April (there own data analytics proves this), and it doesn’t help Wenig is cooking the books and lying to investors; which could cost him his freedom once the FTC takes light of the rampant financial fraud this platform is committing.
Look at the platform’s forums, which show thousands of posts of sellers shutting down their stores and leaving just since the beginning of this year. ebay is so desperate for sales they offered me 30% off my final value fees for any games I list between now and August 14th.
ebay’s horrible policies have come back to haunt them, and as long as Wenig holds the reigns of CEO, the platform will only continue to fail and lose more sellers and buyers as well.
In addition to regular records, I also keep a spreadsheet for charting purposes. One of the charts is a cumulative chart, from $0 in January to $X in December. So far, my online sales are half my previous worst year (2013) and 32% of last year. It is very difficult to sell on eBay these days. I go look at Amazon and see the same stuff moving at almost twice the price! Collectors only seem to use eBay to buy from China during flash sales. In the absence of such sales, they’re not spending on other stuff. The situation on eBay is just broken as far as toys are concerned. 20% fees (what it works out to if you remove shipping from the equation because it costs what it costs) are just too high and domestic shipping costs are out of control.
For as great as the economy is supposed to be right now, I don’t see any of it trickling down.
Devin is so full of crap. All Ebay is going to do this year IS SAME AS EVERY YEAR STEAL FROM THE SELLERS. Only two types of people buy and sell on Ebay – those that r going to get scammed and those that have been scammed. If ur a seller and Ebay stole from u report it to the FBI its criminal not civil – (ic3.gov) Also report it to the USDOJ , your state DOJ and the BBB. Keep records Ebay will delete the evidence. Also report PayPal they r partners in crime and sewage trash just like Ebay. Lets see how Paypal gets alone next year when Ebay no longer brings them fresh fish to scam. Paypal is for people that r too stoned and/or stupid to use their debit cards. Mommy sets the Paypal up so they can function. Paypal has 168,000 complains at the USDOJ and has had countless investigations by the FBI including helping the Russians interfere in the POTUS election in 2016.
Ebay dumps on their small sellers and I feel sorry for them There r a lot of great small sellers on Ebay that do a great job and deserve better. They realize to turn the merchandise they have to stack it deep and sell it cheap.
The software on Ebay is a wreck – that’s their main job is to b the in between to seller and buyer but they r too stupid to do that. The money is spent on private jets and cars, and other perks for Devin, Pierre and the other bandits on the board. People ask me about Ebay and I tell them the same story – two types of people buy and sell on Ebay – those that have been scammed and those that will b scammed. Its a snake pit always has been and always will b. Devin is a Moron. Yes if I was Devin I would fly private lets face it he has scammed and stolen from a lot of people.
Ebay attracts buyers and sellers that scam like fly to crap. There r a lot of great sellers and buyers large and small on Ebay that deserve better.
Elliot will not turn Ebay around it is what it is.