EBay Inc. projected revenue in the current quarter that didn’t convince investors the company’s efforts to revive sales are beginning to work. The shares declined.
(Bloomberg) — EBay Inc. projected revenue in the current quarter that didn’t convince investors the company’s efforts to revive sales are beginning to work. The shares declined.
Revenue will be $2.46 billion to $2.5 billion in the period ending in March, or about the same as a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, sales fell 3.9% to $2.51 billion. The e-commerce company said it had 134 million active buyers in the period ended Dec. 31, a drop of 9% from a year earlier and the seventh straight quarter of declines.
“EBay is back to where it was before the pandemic, losing customers and declining sales,” said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. Investors question if managers can turn it around, he said. “Unless you’re looking for an odd item, EBay is forgotten by most consumers. You just don’t hear a lot about it the way you do the Walmarts, Targets and Amazons of the world.”
Chief Executive Officer Jamie Iannone is trying to reduce expenses to align with declining sales after a pandemic-era boom petered out. Earlier this month, EBay announced it would cut about 500 employees, or 4% of its workforce.
The company is aiming to sell more luxury items like watches to boost revenue while also offering refurbished items to appeal to price-conscious shoppers. In an effort to lure collectors, EBay provides a service to trade and authenticate trading cards and other items and has been building climate-controlled vaults to store them.
Advertising, driven by “promoted listings,” gained 19% to $276 million in the quarter, the San Jose, California-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Gross merchandise volume, the value of all goods sold by EBay, declined 12% to $18.2 billion in the holiday quarter, but topped analysts’ average estimate.
EBay shares fell 5.5% to $45.21 on Thursday in New York. The stock has gained about 8% so far this year, after dropping 38% in 2022.
Earlier this month, Amazon.com Inc. reported that its core online retail business lost money for the fifth straight quarter amid slowing sales growth. The world’s largest e-commerce company is cutting 18,000 employees after rapid expansion during the pandemic left it with too many personnel.
(Updated with shares.)
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