eBay executive Scott Kelliher gave a talk at Retail Innovation Week 2021 (virtually, of course) to offer advice to companies on how to advertise on the eBay platform.
The head of US Brand Advertising & Partnerships for eBay Ads said eBay was unique in providing economic opportunity across the board, owning no inventory and instead partnering with millions of sellers, from individuals, small- and medium-sized businesses, to the biggest brands.
We do our best to treat them all equally, Kelliher said, and eBay doesn’t compete with them.
There are 1.6 billion listings on the eBay platform with 100 million US users (almost double that globally). We won’t use data “to turn around and compete with sellers.”
eBay can provide advertisers with an understanding of how people shop, the ability to see from start to finish how people behave when interacting with their products.
- How many listings do they look at?
- How many brands do they consider?
- How long does it take?
- What color is it?
These enhance the value to anyone who is selling on the eBay platform, but the willingness of eBay to share that is unique. “We think it adds a lot of value to our partners.”
People selling on the platform need to be curious, Kelliher said, and by doing so, they will learn things like what inventory to stock and what types of inventory to bring online, and how to communicate with shoppers.
He shared information about shopping behavior on eBay in 2020. While in a number of different categories, shoppers took longer to pull the trigger on a purchase as they looked at price and delivery options, it was the reverse in the fitness category as the reality of the pandemic set in – the buying journey was compressed in the fitness category, he said.
In 2020, holiday shopping started much earlier – 26% of eBay shoppers had begun by the end of September.
One pressure advertisers are facing: “There’s all kinds of new brands popping up all over the place, kind of all the time.”
He also listed some trends impacting the advertising world:
- the deprecation of the cookie (which is coming);
- server-to-server technology
- transparency around how you’re using data and PII (personally identifiable information)
Curiosity and partnerships were major themes Kelliher discussed that he said can help advertisers learn and grow.
eBay is not a partner! It is just a big bully that we have to do business with.