Goals & Progress

Recommerce

Recommerce, or circular commerce, allows old products to have a longer life by conserving the energy, resources, and costs it would take to create new items from the entire product lifecycle. We assumed that buying a pre-owned item from eBay avoids the need for an equivalent new item to be produced. This new item and all of the environmental impacts associated with making it are “avoided.” However, a used item isn’t an exact substitute for a new item, so some adjustments were made.

To account for differences in quality and lifetime between new and preowned items, a lifetime adjustment factor was used. This was estimated to be approximately 50%, meaning two pre-owned products are needed to displace one new product. For example, a used coat may last half as long as a new one would, so two used coats would provide as much wear as a new coat.

Another adjustment was applied to take into account whether the used item really displaced a new item, or if it was just an extra purchase alongside a new item. This rate is found to be around 50% for many product categories.

These two adjustment factors are combined to give a final displacement rate around 25% (50% times 50%), which means that for every four used products sold, one new product does not need to be manufactured and will not end up in landfill or incineration.

Typical recycling, landfill, and incineration rates for the product categories or material types were used to estimate how many tons of each type of waste were avoided. These vary by country: U.S. rates of landfill are high and incineration is low, whereas in Europe incineration is generally more common and landfill less common. Recycling rates for various materials also vary widely by country.

Published carbon emissions data were collected for the production of new items, matching eBay product categories as closely as possible.

These different factors were combined with sales figures to calculate the avoided carbon impact and waste in each listing category and overall for Electronics, Fashion, Media, Lifestyle, Home & Garden, Business & Industrial, and Vehicle Parts & Accessories for 2023. The financial savings to the buyer from purchasing pre-owned rather than new products were estimated using a similar approach.

See our Methodology for more detailed information.

Economic Empowerment

An eBay Commercial Seller is defined as a seller with at least $10,000 USD or more in annual sales on eBay. Growth in the number of enterprises is based on data from 1,252 U.S. counties that are considered to be “at risk” or “distressed” as defined by the Economic Innovation Group’s 2024 Distressed Communities Index. A Business Establishment is defined as a single physical location at which business is conducted or services or industrial operations are performed. This report uses eBay’s own proprietary data to build on the Economic Innovation Group’s (EIG) proprietary analysis of publicly available data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. This report is the sole product of eBay and is not produced in partnership with the EIG. The date range of 2017 to 2021 is updated from the 2017 to 2020 range used in the 2022 Impact Report.

To determine the net businesses establishment growth rate for the “at risk” and “distressed” county well-being quintiles, we separated counties into their corresponding well-being quintiles and then performed the following calculation for these two quintiles combined: [(total number of 2021 business establishments) - (total number of 2017 business establishments)] / (total number of 2017 business establishments).

eBay (2018) “Platform-Enabled Small Business Formation as a Driver of Economic Balance and Inclusion.”

eBay (2021) “United States Small Online Business Report.” 

U.S. Census Bureau (03/20/2023) County Business Patterns: 2020. Available at: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/data/tables.2020.html

U.S. Census Bureau (03/20/2023) County Business Patterns: 2017. Available at: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/data/tables.2017.html

ESG Materiality

Our approach to the disclosures included in this report differs from our approach to the disclosures we include in our mandatory regulatory reports, including our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This report is intended to provide more detail than is required to be included in other regulatory reports, including our filings with the SEC. Our ESG reporting describes those topics which we consider to be the most important to stakeholders when evaluating environmental, social, and governance issues at eBay. Therefore, ESG materiality in this report does not directly correspond to the concept of materiality used in securities law.

Forward-Looking Statements

We have included in this report statements that may constitute “forward-looking statements.” Forward-looking statements are not historical facts or statements of current conditions, but instead represent only our beliefs regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside our control. These statements are not guarantees of future results or performance and involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict and are often beyond our control. These statements relate to, among other things, our goals, targets, aspirations, and objectives, and actual outcomes and results may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, any of these forward looking statements, or the statements of third parties based on these forward looking statements. Factors that could cause our results to differ from the forward-looking statements include global socio-demographic and economic trends, energy prices, technological innovations, climate-related conditions and weather events, legislative and regulatory changes, and other unforeseen events or conditions. More information about factors that could affect eBay’s results is included under the captions “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by visiting the company’s Investor Relations or the SEC’s website. All information in this Impact Report is as of May 14, 2024. Undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking statements, which are based on information available to eBay on the date hereof. eBay assumes no obligation to update such statements.

About Our Information

Data reflects eBay’s fiscal year 2023, which ended December 31, 2023, unless noted otherwise. All references to dollars are U.S. dollars. eBay reports financial data in its 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K.