Marketplaces

30 eBay Australia Statistics and Facts


Thinking about expanding your retail business to sell on eBay? It will be a great choice, if eBay’s latest figures are anything to go by.

Here’s a short history of eBay, plus a rundown of everything you need to know about eBay in Australia, from who’s selling to who’s buying and what they’re buying.

A Short History of eBay

In September of 1995 in San Jose, California, Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb, a site “dedicated to bringing together buyers and sellers in an honest and open marketplace”. Two years later in September 1997, and after AuctionWeb had reached a million items sold the marketplace was officially renamed eBay.

eBay launched into Australia in 1999 along with sites in Germany and the United Kingdom and is now available in 180 countries.

Over the next 20 years eBay introduced a variety of features and services that you would be familiar with and that make it the platform it is today, including Buy It Now, eBay Stores, and eBay University.

Today eBay isn't just a top online marketplace, but a global ecommerce leader; a platform where buyers and sellers come together to exchange almost anything from run-of-the-mill electronics, clothing, and concert tickets, to slightly less mainstream goods like a grilled cheese sandwich with the face of Virgin Mary which sold for $28,000 in 2004.

1. eBay founded in 1995

2. eBay.com.au launched in 1999

3. Local sites in over 30 countries

eBay Today

4. Global active buyers: 175 million

5. Live listings: 1 billion

6. Gross merchandise volume (2017): $88 billion

7. Percentage of revenue that comes from outside the US: 60%

8. Number of employees: 14,100


eBay on Top in Australia

9. eBay.com.au #1 most visited retail site in Australia

10. eBay.com.au is the #5 most visited website overall

eBay.com.au is the top retail site in Australia and fifth most visited site overall, sliding into the charts a couple of places higher than wikipedia.com and news.com.au.

More people visit the eBay website each month, than the number who visit the next seven retail websites on the list combined (including Kogan, Amazon and JB Hi Fi).

11. eBay receives 62,189,401 monthly website visits

12. 12M of these are unique visitors

This means that half of Australia is on eBay at any one time.

eBay’s focus is on ‘new’ products

13. 91% of items sold on eBay are brand new

You might still think of eBay as a place to sell that pair of jeans that you never wear anymore, or to sell your old iPhone once you’ve upgraded. But things have changed. True, eBay got its start as an auction site for second-hand goods, but nowadays it’s all about the brand-spanking new items.

Who’s Selling on eBay?

14. 40,000 Aussie stores

15. 80 of the Top 100 AU Retailers including Spotlight, Cotton On and Lorna Jane

16. ⅔ of the Top SMBs

17. 1 million C2C sellers

18. 96% of SMB sellers export to other countries

What are Shoppers Buying?

19. Wedding items: purchased every 25 seconds

20. Home decor items: purchased every 12 seconds

21. Watches: purchased every 22 seconds

22. Tools: purchased every 19 seconds

23. Smartphones: purchased every 1 minute

24. Car or truck parts: 4 seconds

Mobile > Desktop

25. 60% of eBay traffic is mobile

Over half of visits to eBay are from mobile users, which means that many purchases are made on the go. And in our instant-gratification world, eBay’s mobile app makes satisfying our ‘in-the-moment’ desires all the more easy.

eBay.com.au Mobile App:

26. Launched in 2008

27. First ecommerce app on iTunes

28. #1 ecommerce app in Australia

29. 8 million+ downloads

8 million downloads might sound like a lot, but this is in comparison to the 414 million downloads of all eBay apps across the globe!

Read our guide on the top online marketplaces to discover where you can find more customers and make more sales.

eBay Delivery

30. Purchases delivered in 4 days or less: 50%

Over half of eBay.com.au orders are currently delivered in 4 days or less, and this number is likely to increase with the recent introduction of eBay Guaranteed Delivery.

eBay Guaranteed delivery allows buyers to filter and select items based on a guaranteed delivery date of 2, 3, or 4 days, a competitive play that will help win back customers from the likes of Amazon who are known for their speedy shipping, especially with Amazon Prime.

eBay & Neto

eBay is a highly profitable channel for many Neto sellers, helping them to reach new customers and increase sales. In fact, in a survey we conducted of our merchants, of those selling on eBay, three quarters of their total sales came through the eBay channel.

Neto have been helping thousands of retailers sell on eBay, web and physical stores for over eight years, providing sellers with an easy way to manage listings, inventory and sales from one central platform.

Where to from here? Learn more about selling on eBay in this post, where we discuss everything from pricing to inventory to perfecting your listings. Or if you're ready to see why so many other Australian retailers choose Neto to sell on marketplaces like eBay, why not start a free trial?