Like just about each sector within the enterprise world, the secondhand trade is grappling with the ramifications of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Nevertheless, primarily based on the feedback made by eBay and Etsy earlier this week, each don’t seem like overly involved.
The businesses lately reported Q1 2025 earnings outcomes, each addressing the urgent matter of tariffs. eBay and Etsy are resilient to an extent, largely attributable to their sellers’ approaches to sourcing merchandise. In distinction to import-reliant rivals like Temu and Shein, which lately raised costs in response to tariffs, many eBay and Etsy sellers within the U.S. primarily supply their merchandise regionally, typically promoting used, classic, or handmade gadgets.
The businesses supplied knowledge throughout their earnings calls to reveal the minimal publicity to tariffs.
eBay’s CEO Jamie Iannone stated, “Our larger China to U.S. quarter makes up about 5% of complete [gross merchandise value] for us. And China general is rather less than 10%.”
Equally, Etsy’s CFO, Lanny Baker, stated, “At current, Etsy’s direct tariff publicity seems to be comparatively low provided that simply over 1% of [gross merchandise sales] comes from U.S. imports of things bought from sellers in China.”
Etsy’s CEO, Josh Silverman, added, “Most are solo entrepreneurs working from their house with 90% sourcing their provides domestically.”
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Having sellers with native sourcing methods can present a big benefit over rivals like Temu, Shein, and Amazon. Nevertheless, secondhand firms nonetheless must cope with the challenges that include the continuing financial uncertainty and client spending habits.
Etsy seems to be barely extra weak in the case of this. Etsy’s core enterprise mannequin focuses on handcrafted and classic items, which are typically priced increased. So, whereas Etsy sellers could not really feel the results of tariffs, prospects are nonetheless hesitant to spend, resulting in a 3.4% year-over-year decline in lively consumers, bringing the full to 88.5 million. The variety of ordinary consumers was down 11%, totaling 6.2 million.
Moreover, Etsy reported an 8.9% decline in gross merchandise gross sales (GMS) for {the marketplace} to $2.3 billion.
On a optimistic observe, Etsy continues to learn from its possession of Depop, a secondhand trend platform that is still in style amid the looming recession. Since buying Depop in 2021, the platform has achieved record-high GMS. The corporate didn’t disclose particular figures.
“Etsy has a robust observe file of navigating turbulent macroeconomic situations, and we’re assured in our capacity to maintain adapting,” Silverman stated.
In distinction, eBay is in a stronger place as a result of extra price-conscious customers are selecting used and refurbished items, which the corporate stated accounts for over 40% of its stock. The corporate reported that prospects wanting to keep away from tariffs have elevated their spending, giving eBay a stable begin to the quarter.
“We now have noticed wholesome quantity tendencies attributable to energy in our focus classes and what could possibly be a modest pull ahead of demand from customers anxious about elevated prices and complexity at U.S. customs within the close to future,” stated eBay’s CFO, Steve Priest.
The corporate’s gross merchandise quantity (GMV) grew to $18.8 billion, whereas income elevated over 1% to $2.58 billion.
