Like just about each sector within the enterprise world, the secondhand business is grappling with the ramifications of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Nonetheless, based mostly on the feedback made by eBay and Etsy earlier this week, each don’t look 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 domestically, usually promoting used, classic, or handmade objects.
The businesses supplied information throughout their earnings calls to display the minimal publicity to tariffs.
eBay’s CEO Jamie Iannone stated, “Our higher China to U.S. quarter makes up about 5% of complete [gross merchandise value] for us. And China total 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 residence 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. Nonetheless, secondhand corporations nonetheless must take care of the challenges that include the continuing financial uncertainty and client spending habits.
Etsy seems to be barely extra weak on the subject of this. Etsy’s core enterprise mannequin focuses on handcrafted and classic items, which are usually priced larger. So, whereas Etsy sellers might not really feel the results of tariffs, prospects are nonetheless hesitant to spend, resulting in a 3.4% year-over-year decline in energetic consumers, bringing the entire to 88.5 million. The variety of routine 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 word, Etsy continues to profit from its possession of Depop, a secondhand vogue platform that is still fashionable 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 monitor report of navigating turbulent macroeconomic circumstances, and we’re assured in our capability to maintain adapting,” Silverman stated.
In distinction, eBay is in a stronger place as a result of extra price-conscious buyers 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’ve noticed wholesome quantity tendencies attributable to power in our focus classes and what could possibly be a modest pull ahead of demand from customers frightened 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.