A new year message
Eve Williams, General Manager of eBay UK
A heartfelt thank you
I’d like to take this chance to thank you for choosing eBay and your continued support in 2024. We took an important step forward in our ambition towards being the best marketplace for our community, and couldn’t have done this without you. We’re invested in your success, and will continue to grow with you.
We appreciate what a busy time of year it is for you, so hope you were able to have a well-deserved rest in time for the new year.
Now, let’s take a look back at some of the things we did in 2024, and what we have in store for you in 2025.
What we introduced in 2024
In 2024, we introduced new tools, features and protections as part of our ambitions to enhance your selling experience and support the growth of your business. Here are some of the things we did.
A human connection
Over the year, we held many in-person events across the UK, such as eBay Open UK, Roadshows and seller meetups, where we had the pleasure of meeting over a thousand of you for days of learning and networking.
Personalised support to help you grow
We also introduced more ways to get fast, flexible support with free Seller Clinics and Pro-Trader Plus. Together with our existing Start-up Scale-up and Pro-Trader programmes, business sellers of all sizes can now get easy access to eBay experts that can help grow your business, tailored to your individual needs.
Bringing more buyers to the platform
We recently also changed our fee structure and made it free for private sellers to sell, so they can bring in more inventory and offer buyers unique items at the best prices.
Doing this was a huge milestone for us, and we’re confident this will bring more sellers, who are also buyers, onto the platform. When we introduced free selling for private sellers in Germany, hundreds of thousands of sellers started to buy, purchasing twice as much as buyers who don’t sell. 80% of the time, they were buying from businesses. We look forward to seeing the impact this has in the UK.
Bringing eBay front of mind
We’ve made significant investments into our marketing, which you’ve likely seen on TV, social media, or in your local area. We’ve also run nationwide campaigns to ensure eBay remains front of mind for our buyers, whether through our partnership with the McLaren Formula 1 team, or our role as the headline sponsor of Love Island. After partnering with Love Island in 2022, interest in shopping pre-loved has continued to surge, and since the summer 2024 season, searches for ‘pre-loved fashion’ have increased by over 400% on the eBay platform.*
Tools to help you list faster and smarter
We also improved the listing experience by introducing an AI-powered tool for bulk listings. Now, you can upload product photos and get ready-to-publish listings in a matter of seconds. With the enhanced background removal tool, you can create studio-quality photos for your listings and get them out faster.
Giving buyers more ways to purchase
We launched brand new flexible payment options for your buyers such as Klarna. Alongside this, we introduced eBay balance for private sellers. After making a sale, their earnings will now go straight into their eBay balance, so it’s easier for them to shop on eBay to help boost sales for your business.
More protections for buyers and sellers
As part of our ambition to make sure you’re better protected, we’ve worked to help reduce unpaid items, and dedicated additional customer support to address fraudulent returns more effectively, ensuring faster and simpler resolutions.
Programmes like Authenticity Guarantee, eBay Assured Fit and Certified Refurbished have also gone from strength to strength, helping ensure that we have you covered. Whether you’re fixing your car and need to know the parts you buy will fit your vehicle, are spending on luxury goods, or buying something refurbished, you’ll have peace of mind when shopping on eBay.
Levelling the playing field
To maintain a fair and equitable marketplace for all business sellers, we’ve introduced more measures to ensure private sellers are trading as they should be on the platform.
We’ve also made sure that both private and business sellers have the right tools to achieve their unique goals, while ensuring you can maintain a competitive edge.
What you can look forward to in 2025
We’re excited to bring you more in 2025, and will keep you updated on new releases throughout the year. We’re starting off by announcing the launch of Buyer Protection, as part of our ongoing commitment to deliver simpler, safer and more successful selling. This is a brand new protection that buyers will benefit from when they shop on eBay, from 4 Feb. Buyer Protection will be included on purchases on ebay.co.uk and comes at no extra cost to business sellers or their buyers. For listings from UK-based private sellers, a Buyer Protection fee will be added to the item price, paid for by the buyer.
With Buyer Protection, all buyers and sellers will get 24/7 customer support where you can connect with a real person by phone whenever you need, or start a chat to get quick answers.
We’re always looking for more ways to help drive sales to your business, so from 20 Jan, Coupons, Multi-buy and other discount tools will only be available to business sellers. You can look forward to more exclusive benefits in the future.
To give buyers more peace of mind, when purchasing from private sellers, funds will only be sent once their item has been delivered. Nothing will change for business sellers, and you’ll still receive your payouts as quickly as you do today.
Buyer Protection excludes Vehicles, Classified Ads and Property.
We’re committed to providing you with the opportunities to help you succeed on eBay in 2025 and beyond, and can’t wait to see what you achieve.
As always, thank you for selling on eBay.
