Dive Brief:
- All of eBay's desktop sellers have migrated to a single unified listing experience globally, Jamie Iannone, president and CEO of the company, said during a Q3 earnings call Wednesday. The migration eliminated multiple legacy tools and has enabled faster innovation.
- With a focus on customer experience, eBay has made technology investments to add new payment capabilities and remove transactional friction. It has also invested in deep learning models to better understand purchase intent, driving site-wide conversion improvements.
- The company ended the quarter with net revenue around $2.4 billion for the period ending Sept. 30, down 5% year-over-year from $2.5 billion.
Dive Insight:
EBay’s newest acquisitions through its tech-led reimagination initiatives shows the company's commitment to providing an online hub for collector items.
In August, eBay acquired myFitment, a tool to ensure online automotive and power sports parts meet data requirements of the aftermarket catalog exchange standard. The deal allowed eBay to modernize its taxonomy to align its business globally. It also opened up new cross-border trade opportunities and technologies related to search, merchandising and advertising recommendations, according to Iannone.
On Oct. 31, eBay acquired TCGplayer, a technology platform for collectible card games, for a total deal value of up to $295 million, the company announced. The online marketplace adds inventory management capabilities, order fulfillment and card optimization tools, access to local hobby shops and omnichannel capabilities.
“You should expect us to continue to look at key areas, such as vertical expansion or boosting our core strategy, tech and talent, and then opportunities to expand our overall capabilities,” Iannone said, according to a SeekingAlpha transcript. “Always doing it in the framework that I've outlined — of build, buy, partner — that we think has the best return for shareholders.”
