Economic Opportunity

Drawn from a pool of 7,000 submissions, our 2023 grantees represent 27 U.S. states and multiple product categories, including motors, home and garden, clothes, collectibles, and toys.

Of the 2023 small businesses awarded a grant, 62% are minority-owned, 22% have a disability, and 12% identify as LGBTQ+. Meet the full class of 2023 Up & Running grantees.

Every year, we invite SBAN members to Washington, D.C., and Brussels, Belgium, for advocacy meetings with U.S. and European Union legislators.

In May and September of 2023, select SBAN members joined eBay executives to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and discuss how current ecommerce public policy issues are affecting small businesses. In June 2023, a group of 11 SBAN members joined eBay executives in Brussels, Belgium, for meetings with key legislators from the European Parliament and Commission to discuss product safety regulations that would have had an effect on the European circular economy. Sellers represented a variety of product categories — from clothing and shoes to computers, tablets, and hardware — and were invited to speak about their experiences as eBay small business owners and the impacts of ecommerce legislation currently under consideration.

In 2023, eBay Open attracted more than 11,000 attendees. Throughout the four-day hybrid event, attendees participated in training sessions, category breakouts, a virtual expo hall, and networking events, and presentations from eBay executives on strategy, product updates, and innovations.

In 2023, more than 50 chapters throughout the U.S. held regularly scheduled meetings with more than 600 sellers in attendance to share tips and build relationships.

eBay U.K. and The Waste and Resources Action Programme launched the Circular Change Council, an initiative uniting major homeware brands to increase circularity in the furniture industry, helping divert waste from the millions of furniture items discarded in the U.K. each year.

Building on the successful launch of the Circular Fashion Fund in 2022, eBay U.K. announced its £100,000 fund has returned for a second year in partnership with The British Fashion Council.

The fund aims to invest and propel new technologies to enable the circular economy, through small business grants up to £25,000, mentorship, and networking supported by environmental charity Hubbub.

Last year, eBay U.K. launched Carbon Academy, a training program created with Climate Partner, to help small businesses understand their carbon footprint and take action to reduce emissions. The free courses are easily accessible online, making it convenient for our vast seller community to get the knowledge they need to become more environmentally sustainable.

In 2023, we continued our work with Black Girl Fest to break down barriers and level the entrepreneurship playing field. We also piloted a new sneaker selling program, Sneaker Academy, in partnership with Hatch Enterprise. The program supports young people who face additional barriers to employment to launch their sneaker business on eBay.

Additionally, through eBay for Change, to date we’ve worked with over 250 social enterprises to connect tens of millions of British shoppers with small businesses reinvesting their profits back into their local communities or abroad.

Our Small Online Business Inclusive Global Trade Report reveals tremendous export success by small businesses using eBay in 18 markets globally, running the trade gamut from Net Importers to Net Exporters, and the development spectrum from Advanced to Emerging Economies. It provides further evidence that eBay’s level-playing field marketplace is breaking the traditional link between firm size and the ability to be a successful exporter, which is a clear step forward to a more balanced and inclusive economy.

We also published a new report focused on Promoting Inclusive Economic Opportunities Across Germany. The data presented illustrates how eBay small business activity is contributing to the important goal of balanced regional development across Germany. We found more selling activity, on a per capita basis, coming from eBay small businesses in disadvantaged and rural areas than from more affluent urban centers.

Finally, our Japan Small Online Business Trade Report showcases how eBay is empowering Japanese small businesses and individuals by providing access to over 132 million consumers across more than 190 countries that benefits Japan economically, socially, and environmentally.