eBay said it broke all sales records for the Cyber 5 weekend spanning the 5-day period that included Thanksgiving Day (November 26, 2020), Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
eBay executive Jordan Sweetnam said in a post this week that success was driven by the hard-to-find and out-of-stock items – “Shoppers flooded to eBay for everything from Playstations and Jordans to Pokemon cards and Rolexes,” he said.
He also highlighted refurbished goods – that’s an area eBay has been pushing after it set up a portal where shoppers could find certified, direct-from-brand refurbs.
“Buying refurbished is the new normal,” Sweetnam said. “Shoppers were purchasing certified refurbished items like never before, from top brands including Bose, Skullcandy, Cuisinart, DeWalt, Makita and iRobot.”
Sales of refurbished items increased 170% during Cyber 5 compared to the same period a week before, he added.
He also called out some areas of high growth over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend:
- Gaming systems have increased by 215% vs. last year; And it’s not just the latest generation of consoles – sales for the new and previous gen Playstation and Xbox consoles have spiked 460% on average since last month,
- On Cyber Monday alone, an average of 113 trading cards sold per minute; Pokémon collectible cards were among the most popular, seeing a 1088% month-over-month sales increase.
Sweetnam also thanked sellers. “Thank you for all the hard work that you put into your eBay businesses. You, our sellers, are the driving force behind our results, and I’m grateful to share this moment with all of you.” You can find his full post on the eBay Seller Announcement board.
Amazon said independent businesses on its platform experienced 60% growth year-over-year over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend, surpassing $4.8 billion in worldwide sales. Nearly all of them were small and medium-sized businesses, Amazon said.
Really?! I didn’t.