Keynote - Powering Your Success #eBayOpen2024

At eBay Open this year, I'm most excited about networking with other resellers and hearing about product updates that eBay will be sharing. I'm most excited to connect with other eBay sellers who have also donated to charity and learn their reasons why.

My business has benefited from attending eBay Open through the relationships I've been able to form and the connections we've made. Networking with people has truly been the best thing for my business in terms of growth and learning experiences.

I'm going to be sharing six tips to jump-start your reselling business. At this year's eBay Open, I'll be sitting down with the GM of Collectibles, DPAC Ragaswami, and he'll be asking me about my time here on eBay Live.

The relationships I've been able to build at eBay Open have extended to our social media platforms, where they continue to grow and we continue to support each other.

We should do this. All right, yes. Hello everyone, good morning, good afternoon, hello, and welcome to eBay Open 2024! I'm Rebecca Michaels, Director of Seller Community and Engagement here at eBay, and I'm so excited to be with all of you today. We've been through several eBay Opens together now, and each year I bring up a different buddy to help me host this event. This year, we're shaking things up a little bit by including some of our very own eBay seller community members. They were part of eBay Open last year as well, and it was so fun. You told us how much you liked sellers being a core part of the event. So say hello to Ken Gano of The Hustle Bee and Anna Packer of Anesthetic Miscellany. Perfect, nailed it. Welcome! I'm so glad to have you here. It is really fantastic to have you join me on the stage. How does it feel to be part of hosting eBay Open this year?

It's amazing, Rebecca. We've both been a part of the eBay community for years, and it's so exciting to be on this side of things, sharing our journey with fellow sellers.

Yeah, and it's such a great opportunity to connect with the teams here at eBay and see all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to bring this incredible event about. The energy here is just amazing.

Yes, well, you guys, we have a packed agenda over the next few days. You'll find sessions designed to enhance your selling skills, expand your network, maximize your profits, and explore everything that eBay has to offer. Before we dive into today's sessions, I know there were about a thousand sellers who attended one of our 30-plus kickoff parties last night. So let's take a moment. I think we might have a few photos from last night's festivities. Oh yeah, we sure do. Look at that! Let us know in the chat if you were at one of these parties all across the country. I see some familiar faces there. Thank you to everyone who came out last night to join one of these kickoff parties. It looks like it was amazing. Unfortunately, you guys couldn't be there. I couldn't be there because we're here with you today, but if you missed the parties, no worries.

For sure, for sure. Make sure you visit all our networking rooms where you can meet and connect with other sellers. This is where you share tips and stories with each and every one of them, make friends.

Absolutely. The chats and networking rooms, it's like the place to be at eBay Open. Wish we could have been there.

Well, okay, so that's all the fun, but let's talk about today. Anna, tell me, what session are you looking forward to most today?

Well, I'm really excited about the Seller Labs, especially the session with Stephanie Franco, an eBay seller who is talking about inventory management, which you guys know is one of my favorite topics. Recently I moved and I have a new basement, so I have to get some pointers from Stephanie about how to fit everything in there the best way. I'm sure I'm going to learn something from her. That's the cool thing: I've been selling on eBay a long time, but there's always something to learn from our fellow sellers.

That's true.

So I'm going to learn. I should not just have a pile in the back of my garage. I'll organize it. I bet that's what Stephanie would recommend.

But you should watch your session and make sure.

I will definitely do that, yeah.

All right, Ken, how about you? What are you looking forward to? I know that you have an interview with Streetwear category manager William Jang.

Yes, for sure. I'm very excited about the keynote presentations that spotlight innovation on eBay, because that's definitely going to level up my game. And of course, can't miss my own session. Make sure you are there. Speaking of exciting, Rebecca, I did see Meta on the schedule. I cannot wait to be there. I'm definitely taking notes because that's going to level up my social media game.

Yeah, we brought Meta in for a really exciting session that's going to teach us all about using Instagram to grow your business. I think it's going to be great. But speaking of social media, since you brought it up, we actually want everyone out there to take photos and share your photos of where you are and your excitement about eBay Open on @eBayForSellers on Instagram and use the hashtag #eBayOpen2024. If you tag us, we might feature your post in our story on Instagram, and also your picture will appear on our social wall right here in the event. So we cannot wait to see your pictures.

Rebecca, what about us? We should take a selfie.

Oh, should we take a selfie? Yes, let's take a selfie.

I got us. Here we go. All right, lighting is correct. Three, two, one, smile. All right, one more, one more. One, two, three, there we go.

Awesome. Those are great. We have to get those up immediately. So make sure, like Rebecca said, tag eBayForSellers, use the hashtag #eBayOpen2024. You got it exactly.

All right, back to today's event. So if you haven't already, please be sure to explore the platform tour here on RingCentral, which is the event platform you're on today. Go into the reception space, go into the expo hall. It's a great way to ensure that you don't miss out on anything during the event. As a reminder, I saw lots of conversation in the chat, which is wonderful, lots of shout-outs about where you are. In fact, shout out where you're dialing in from. Where's everybody from? Drop it in the chat. But definitely, please keep the chat respectable and spam-free. We're all here to learn and grow together.

Yeah, so well, guys, we showed up, we even selfied, so I think it's time to dive in.

I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. Let's do this.

So first up, we have Jamie Iannone, eBay CEO, who will kick us off with a company strategy and info about what you'll hear over the next few days. You will not want to miss that. It's coming up next. So thank you, Ken and Anna, for joining us today here on stage, and thank all of you for being here. Let's make eBay Open 2024 the best one yet.

Yeah, all right, you're ready? We're ready. Let's go.

Welcome to eBay Open. This is one of my favorite events every year, and I'm so glad to be here with you. We have an amazing community of new and longtime sellers, including some who have been with us since eBay began almost 30 years ago. Throughout this year, I've gotten to connect with so many of you at our local events, and the stories you have shared about how you've built your businesses and the positive impact eBay has had on your lives continue to inspire me and motivate all of us here at eBay to make our platform even better for you, our sellers, every day. Our founding purpose is to create economic opportunity for all, and it's the driving force behind everything that we do. We're focused on building meaningful tools for sellers like you so that your businesses can grow and thrive. I love meeting with you and hearing what matters most. Your insights are so valuable. I've had rich discussions with sellers like you on where we can improve. Some common themes that come up: you want us to continue investing in AI-powered tools, make it easier for shoppers to find your inventory, and further streamline the selling process. We hear you, and we're continuing to innovate to take your business forward. Over the next two days, leaders across eBay will share with you what we're doing to make selling and shopping stronger and more seamless. Let me give you a few highlights. Our Chief Product Officer, Eddie Garcia, will give you a look at our latest innovations and tips to put them to work for you. Adrien Fung, our Chief Marketing Officer, will help you better understand and connect with today's buyers by leveraging our latest research and AI-powered insights. And Aresh Matal and Deepa Sharma, our VPs from Financial Services, will fill you in on how we're making it easier for you to make sales and get paid, including adding more payment options to choose from. Our goal at eBay is for you to achieve your business goals. During this year's Open events, I hope you'll continue sharing your experiences and ideas with our teams. We take your advice very seriously because for us, success happens together. We only win when you do, and we're here to help your businesses flourish today and in the future. Now let's take a minute and talk about our strategy, where we're headed, and what that means for you and your business. Every day, millions of people shop and sell on our global marketplace. Since I joined as CEO, eBay has been on a transformational journey, and the pace of innovation continues to accelerate. Teams around the world have been working hard to deliver new tools that will make eBay even easier to use and help us meet and exceed buyer expectations. We've laid out an ambitious vision of reinventing the future of e-commerce for enthusiasts. When I talk about enthusiast buyers, these are the most passionate shoppers in our eBay community. They tend to be repeat customers and are likely to spend the most on our marketplace. For example, they are the ones who are shopping for that one-of-a-kind trading card to add to their collection, for that iconic pair of retro boots, or for that special vintage timepiece to wear to their next event. With enthusiast buyers, we know one purchase will often lead to another elsewhere on eBay. Once these buyers purchase an item, they will continue to shop across many other categories. For you, our sellers, this ultimately will help to drive sales and bring in more potential buyers. Enthusiasts are also all of you, our sellers, who are focused on building your business on eBay and supporting our community every day. I hear wonderful stories like Grace Isoli, who turned a $40 investment into a seven-figure fashion business on eBay. Grace is one of our Up and Running Grant winners. Since receiving a $10,000 grant last year, her business has grown over 400%, fueling her dream of retiring early. I met just the other day with Richard Senko, who started flipping cell phones on eBay for extra cash after getting laid off from his day job. He soon pivoted to selling pre-loved fashion, and now he runs a successful six-figure monthly business and hasn't needed a day job since. Richard told me his success on eBay has transformed his life, giving him the freedom to support and be there for his family as a single dad. We celebrate these passions and dreams at eBay. This is the driving force behind our vision to reinvent the future of e-commerce. As your business grows, our goal is to provide you with the right tools that evolve with your ambitions. We have three strategic pillars that will help us get there, and I'll cover those today. Let's start with the first pillar of our strategy: relevant experiences. This is all about solving for the specific and evolving needs of sellers and buyers. We know eBay needs to fit your needs regardless of the size of your store, what category you sell in, or where you're located. Whether you're an established business looking to expand your reach online through eBay or a new seller starting out and listing a few pieces of clothing from your closet, we are committed to developing products to support you as your business grows. We're also working to make your job easier by solving for some of the pain points you've shared with us. One example is to further address unpaid items with our new Best Offer experience, which requires all US buyers to provide a form of payment before placing an offer. This will be rolling out soon, along with new consequences for non-paying buyers, helping us to safeguard your eBay transactions. We've reimagined our checkout experience to increase buyer confidence and trust while streamlining the path to purchase. For buyers, relevant experiences means creating lasting buyer relationships so they come back to our marketplace time and time again. It's about helping buyers find what they need and love and having the best selection of brands and inventory so they shop across all of our categories. We started this journey by developing standout experiences in verticals like Motors, Luxury, and Collectibles. You'll hear more about this from Dawn Block, GM of the US Market and VP of Global Selling. We're also expanding programs like Authenticity Guarantee that help buyers shop with confidence and eliminate the need for returns for sellers. We recently reached a major milestone for Authenticity Guarantee, authenticating our 10 millionth item. To further modernize our shopping experience, we're evolving our user experience to make it easier for buyers to find your listings. Recently, we launched Shop the Look, which uses AI to curate personalized fashion picks for buyers to browse. We're also rolling out a reimagined search experience with a more visually rich design, including larger, higher-resolution images and a simplified menu that makes it easier for buyers to navigate and buy. Now let's turn to our next pillar: scalable solutions. What's powerful about our global marketplace is our unmatched reach. You can connect with over 132 million buyers worldwide across 190 markets, and we have more than 25 years of customer insights and data from tens of billions of cumulative listings. The scale and breadth of our inventory, combined with our years of innovation with AI, enables us to continue to evolve our technology and create next-generation e-commerce experiences. With our unique scale, we're focused on how we can leverage this to create more resources for you, our sellers. Our teams use our decades of data from billions of listings, and now you have access to that same information. The Product Research tool on mobile or desktop will help you easily set the optimal price and list items. We're also harnessing the power of AI to deliver a more personalized shopping experience to each customer based on their past shopping behavior. By tailoring the message and timing of touchpoints like emails, notifications, and on-site marketing, we're solving for the challenge of matching your listings with the perfect buyer at the right time and place. Our expanded Global Shipping Program removes the complexity of cross-border trade. With the new combined shipping service for EIS, you can send items to a domestic hub and let eBay handle everything else. There's no international selling fee, and your customers get quick, quality service and delivery. Finally, our third pillar is magical innovations, which is all about the game-changing ways we're innovating with technology like AI to transform our marketplace. As Eddie will share, we're focused on helping sellers succeed by simplifying their listing and selling experience and by modernizing our platform to enhance buyer confidence. You've told us great things about the Magical Listing tool launched just last year. Magical Listing uses generative AI to help you create quality listings more quickly and easily. We're continuing to bring this experience to more sellers in the US, and we're adding exciting new capabilities as well, like supporting bulk listings. AI is also helping to improve the quality of your product imagery. You know better than anyone that better images mean faster sales, but top-notch photography can be costly and time-consuming. Our new Background Enhancement tool lets you remove a less-than-glamorous background from a product image and replace it with a studio-quality backdrop. One ebayer was pleasantly surprised at just how much of a difference this can make in the selling price. He showed a pair of pre-owned sunglasses on top of a picturesque mountain summit and was thrilled with the results. I want to conclude with some updates that I think should make us all really proud. As I mentioned before, our mission at eBay is to connect people and build communities to create economic opportunity for all. We are your partners, and eBay only succeeds when you succeed. This is the reason that we have an entire team dedicated to advocating for legislative updates in the US and EU that will better support small businesses. In the US, we've been urging Congress to change the proposed threshold for 1099-K tax forms to a more reasonable level that wouldn't place an unnecessary burden on sellers. Our work here, with your help, has helped persuade the IRS to twice delay the implementation of a lower reporting threshold. This is an ongoing challenge, and we continue to campaign for a more reasonable and permanent outcome. On a global level, we are pushing for the modernization of global trade rules that have historically favored large enterprises. The majority of our small business sellers here in the US are exporters, and wherever you call home, eBay wants to make sure you can fully benefit from the global scale of our marketplace. Our outreach also extends beyond our marketplace and into the communities where we live and work. We're dedicated to supporting our local communities and the environment. In fact, eBay for Charity is one of the most powerful giving platforms in commerce today. Every time you sell or buy on eBay, you can support the causes that matter most to you. Together, we've raised more than $1.3 billion towards 225,000 nonprofits to date. That's truly a remarkable impact you're making for our communities. Our eBay Foundation also partners with nonprofit organizations that are addressing and removing barriers to entrepreneurship for people who identify with historically excluded groups. Our foundation has awarded over $120 million worldwide since 1998, and in 2023 alone, our foundation granted over $19 million towards this goal. As longtime champions of recommerce, eBay remains committed to sustainability and the circular economy. Every day, we help extend the life of items through the selling and buying of pre-owned goods. In 2023 alone, our marketplace generated nearly $4.9 billion in positive economic impact through the sale of pre-loved and refurbished goods. As a result, we helped prevent around 1.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions that would typically be produced in making new goods. That's roughly equivalent to emissions from powering more than 300,000 homes for a year. We also kept nearly 70,000 metric tons of waste from going into landfills, the same weight as more than half a trillion cell phones. Our Up and Running Grant program provides small business sellers with mentoring, funding, and support to fuel their growth. We've committed more than $2.5 million to 200 small businesses since we launched the program in 2020. Tomorrow, Dawn Block and Rebecca Michaels, who lead our seller community engagement, will introduce you to several of these sellers, and they'll also announce our grant recipients for 2024. On behalf of everyone at eBay, I want to say how grateful we are for all that you do to make eBay such a special place to work, shop, and connect around what we love most. I'm incredibly optimistic about the opportunities ahead to deliver even more game-changing experiences for you. Again, welcome to eBay Open, everyone. It's great to have you here. Please welcome Vice President and General Manager, US Market and Global Selling, Dawn Block.

Thanks, Jamie. Relevant, scalable, magical. Our strategy is designed to help your business grow and succeed and enable you to reach millions of buyers around the world in simpler, more efficient ways. Hi, I'm Dawn Block, VP and General Manager of the US Market and Global Selling teams at eBay. My role brings together the many groups across eBay that work directly with sellers to make sure that we're building deeper relationships with you so that you can grow your businesses on eBay. I also oversee eBay Open, our Seller Week, and the many seller community local events in the US and around the world. Like everyone else from eBay you'll meet at Open, I'm part of the team that makes sure we're always listening to you and taking actions on the things you need to be successful on eBay. Thank you for joining us at eBay Open 2024. I am so grateful that you're spending the next two days with us. As you've heard from Jamie, eBay's mission is connecting people and building communities to create economic opportunity for everyone. We are partners to our sellers. We succeed when you succeed, and we never compete with you. Together with sellers like you, we've built eBay into one of the most trusted and sustainable community commerce platforms. Our commitment to our sellers is why we've been a core part of the e-commerce landscape for nearly 30 years, and it's why listening to your voices and taking action based on your input is the most important part of my role at eBay. Earlier this year, I met with Dennis Hong, who together with his brothers Davis and Douglas co-founded an eBay store called Gander. Their business model is focused on reselling and upcycling high-quality new overstock and returned merchandise for major retail brands. The Hong brothers' business provides a conscious, sustainable solution to the complex problem of returned inventory. They had a vision for solving a pain point in the market, then pursued that vision with passion, and they trusted eBay to be their partner in growing that vision into a reality. So far, the Hong brothers have sold over 300,000 items on eBay and saved over 200,000 items from ending up in a landfill, all while delivering an exceptional 99.7% positive feedback score. When Dennis and David found that eBay's tools weren't able to scale to support their needs, they came to us and said there's potential for eBay to be better. So we listened. Today, Dennis and David, along with hundreds of other entrepreneurial sellers like them, are involved in giving us feedback on new policies, programs, and features ahead of public launch through programs like eBay Expressions. We're getting direct input from thousands of sellers about the updates and changes that impact you so that we understand your needs and deliver the tools you need to grow your business with us. In May of this year, Dennis and several other sellers joined me in Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress about policies that impact our sellers. Because the reality is, eBay is fighting for our seller community every day. You heard from Jamie how we're working on legislative updates in the US and EU that will promote the growth of the circular economy and lower regulatory barriers for small businesses. At events like Open and Seller Week, and online on our community pages, we're committed to bringing together sellers and elevating your voices to make sure we're always hearing from you. Through our original content like the eBay for Sellers on Instagram or our Seller Spotlight series on YouTube, we're elevating your stories and giving you a platform to inspire each other. We know that earning your trust is crucial to our success, and that trust is always part of the conversation. During tomorrow's keynote, Lori Wong, an eBay seller many of you will know, will join eBay Senior Director of Trust David Newman for some real talk about the challenges that impact sellers, things like VeRO, unpaid items, abusive buyer behavior, and negative feedback. We'll talk about new steps we're taking to protect you and your business when you're making sales on eBay. We're committed to being your partners, and we take this commitment seriously. Our marketplace is powered by our seller community and fueled by people's passion for the things they love. That's why it's so important for us as eBay's business leaders to continue listening to you. You're our partners, and your input is essential in helping us continue to transform eBay for the future. This week at Open, I encourage you to tell us what's on your mind: what's working, what isn't, and what needs to be better so that you can keep growing on eBay. Now, if you've joined any of our seller events before, you've heard how the passion of our seller community empowers eBay's business strategy. You've heard about how we're building our strategy around the categories where people love to buy and sell on eBay. If you're fixing a car, you need to know the parts you buy on eBay are going to be the right fit for your ride. If you're a sneakerhead, eBay should be the best place to buy and sell sneakers with no fakes, no fraud, and no doubt. If you're a trading card collector, eBay should have everything you need to buy, sell, store, authenticate, and grade your cards. If you're spending a lot on high-end luxury goods, you should feel safe knowing that eBay has your back every step from the moment your item enters our authentication facility to the time it reaches your door. By narrowing our focus, we are raising the bar for buying and selling in specific categories on the site. We start with trust to build category-specific experiences that our enthusiast buyers love. Then we're scaling the most impactful category-specific enhancements to benefit buyers and sellers across even more categories. Finally, we're telling our story in ways only eBay can, through ambitious, high-profile marketing that showcases the best of what makes eBay, eBay. Next up, I'm pleased to welcome Chris P. and Ashish Chhabra. They're going to tell you even more about the journey that we've been on to transform buying and selling in our biggest focus categories, starting with eBay Motors. Chris, let's ride.

Thanks, Don. Hi, sellers. I'm Chris P., VP of eBay Motors. I oversee the teams that operate eBay's global vehicles, parts and accessories, heavy equipment, and business and industrial categories. Before I start, I'd like to thank you again for joining us at eBay Open this year. It's my 20th year at eBay, and it's a privilege to be here. I'm so grateful that you're spending your time with us. Parts and accessories, also known as P&A, is one of the largest categories on eBay. It's an incredibly exciting category with intense competition. Things like fitment—does this part actually fit my car?—and quality—if this part fails, will my car break down or crash?—present eBay with unique challenges. Over the last several years, we've been on a mission to transform the experience of selling and buying car parts on eBay. As you've heard from other leaders at Open, the journey starts with trust and relentless focus on delighting our customers. Our destination is an eBay marketplace that has every part for every vehicle, where you can find the exact right part for every ride in your garage. When we say every ride in your garage, I'll tell you why that matters. I recently spent time with Mark Ral, an eBay seller from Arizona. His background is in machine shop, aerospace, and robotics programming, but his real love is racing cars. For many years, he's run an eBay business selling parts for motorcycles and exotic cars: Porsches, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris. When the economy is strong, Mark's buyers are spending on parts for the exotic sports cars. But when economic conditions change and consumers aren't as willing to pay for pricey car parts, they still tend to spend on parts for their bikes. Mark is able to pivot his eBay business between exotics and motorcycles, which diversifies his inventory and buyer base and makes his business more resilient. The flexibility to quickly change his eBay business in response to customer demand has been critical for Mark's success, and today his eBay business has a healthier margin than ever. I mentioned that Mark loves racing. Earlier this August, Mark set a world record for the fastest half-mile in a street-legal combustion engine car, reaching a top speed of 267.2 mph in his 2023 Lamborghini Huracán STO that pushes over 3,000 horsepower. What an inspiration for all of us. Mark's passion for racing, whether it's supercars or sports bikes, and his dedication to making his eBay store a success despite changing economic conditions are such a great reminder of what makes our marketplace so special and interesting. Sellers like Mark and the rest of you here at Open are the reason we're constantly innovating in Motors and P&A. In the past several years, we've delivered some incredible advancements. We started with investments in data and quality, acquired myFitment, and have since added over 5 billion pieces of fitment data. As a result, we're seeing a double-digit increase in conversion on listings with this data. Next, we enhanced and modernized our vehicle and tire finders to help buyers find the right parts quickly and easily. Then we introduced Guaranteed Fit, eBay's promise that the parts you purchase will fit your ride, and we'll cover the cost of returns and refunds if they don't. We've added more options for services like tire installation for buyers who'd rather have a mechanic do the repair job for them. Since our last eBay Open, we've kept our foot on the gas and delivered even more innovation for sellers. Our enhanced multi-warehouse fulfillment options help us showcase your many warehouse locations to buyers with more accurate estimated delivery dates than ever. For buyers, we've introduced Shop by Job, a new destination on the site that provides car lovers with how-to guides and inspiration for common do-it-yourself jobs, then automatically suggests the right parts, accessories, and tools on eBay to get the job done. The pace of innovation has been remarkable, but it's only part of the picture. We've been ambitious in telling the eBay Motors story like never before. A few years into the journey, I've never been prouder of how our brand is showing up. We've invested in driving awareness of your incredible inventory through high-profile marketing campaigns that target new and existing Motors and P&A buyers. We've reached millions of shoppers where they show up across TV, social channels, podcasts, and in-person events with trusted voices from the car-loving community. This year alone, we've brought to life the eBay Motors value proposition made possible by you, our seller community, through efforts like the commemorative From the Collection Ken Block auction. We sponsored the new Netflix original series Resurrected Rides, and through our partnership with McLaren Racing Formula 1, eBay's name is officially now part of the pinnacle of motorsports at a time when Formula 1 has never been more popular. At every step, we're underscoring our commitment to building trusted experiences, value, and breadth of inventory, which in turn generates more momentum for sellers like you. Tomorrow, you'll hear more about our marketing efforts in P&A from our CMO, Adrien Fung, where the rubber meets the road. I'm happy to share that our strategy is working. P&A has been a growth area for eBay and continues to be a highlight when we talk to investors about a return to long-term sustainable growth. We've seen that car enthusiasts are repeat customers. They come to eBay to buy parts for their car and end up spending even more across more of the marketplace. Automotive parts and accessories is one of the largest categories on eBay, and we're continuing to keep our foot on the gas to deliver all the innovations that you need to run your car parts and accessories business successfully on eBay. Next up, to talk to you about the latest in some of the other focus categories, here's our eBay Global VP of Verticals, Ashish Chhabra.

Thank you, Chris. Hi, sellers. If you haven't met before, I'm Ashish Chhabra, and I oversee the global verticals including our fashion, collectibles, and hard goods businesses, along with eBay Live. I also oversee the amazing authentication operations team that delivers eBay Authenticity Guarantee, the hardworking people who inspect every item that comes through authentication facilities around the world. On behalf of my entire team and everyone at eBay, I would like to thank you again for joining us at eBay Open 2024. I know that many of you joining us this week sell clothing and collectibles, so I'm excited to share the work we're doing to bring game-changing innovation to these categories. If you've joined any of our seller community events over the last several years, you've probably heard us talk about collectibles. Since the Beanie Baby days, the collectibles category has been a central part of eBay's business. In the last several years, we have completely transformed what it's like to buy and sell collectibles on eBay. We started with trust as the foundation and introduced a series of game-changing innovations for hobbyists and collectors. First up: Price Guide and Collections, making it super simple to know what your cards are worth and what is in your collection. Then we introduced Image Scan and Scan to List, two computer vision solutions to make listing a card a snap. We created the eBay Standard Envelope, a safer and more affordable way to ship trading cards, stamps, and similar items under $20. Next was the launch of Authenticity Guarantee for trading cards, which extended our no fakes, no fraud, no doubt policy to trading cards. In 2022, we opened the eBay Vault, now the PSA Vault, to give collectors a safe, secure storage solution for high-value cards. We welcomed TCGplayer to eBay last year, and we also began our pilot with live commerce in the collectibles category, where trading card case breaks and live streams are already popular with fans and collectors. Since last year's eBay Open, we've built even more momentum through our new partnership with PSA. We're enhancing the process of getting your cards graded and making it seamless to list, sell, grade, and store cards all in one simple experience, so it's easier for sellers like you to get the best price for your items and sell through your inventory quickly. We've partnered with COMC to leverage their data catalog and services to help sellers digitize their cards and inventory and help buyers find the exact cards they're looking for. In May, eBay acquired Goldin Auctions, the marketplace for the most sought-after one-of-a-kind items across trading cards, collectibles, and memorabilia. Many of you will recognize Goldin CEO Ken Goldin from the Netflix series King of Collectibles. It's been a real thrill to bring Ken and his team on board. We're already unlocking some great opportunities together for collectible sellers. Collectibles remains an incredibly competitive market, and the pace of innovation is relentless. But by bringing together these category-specific innovations in collectibles, we're building a greater level of trust in every transaction, making buying and selling frictionless, and introducing new solutions for every step of the collecting journey. Our aim is to make eBay the undisputed home of the hobby, where sellers like you are equipped with the right tools and resources to sell collectibles at every price point. It's an incredibly exciting time for the passionate community of collectors and hobbyists on our site, and I've never been more confident that we are well-positioned to remain as a leader in the collectibles industry in the years ahead. Earlier, I mentioned live commerce and the progress we've made in rolling out eBay Live for collectibles. Live commerce is an exciting space for eBay, and I would like to share a bit more about the opportunities we see for sellers using eBay Live. Starting in both collectibles and fashion, we've seen live streams as an important way for sellers to connect directly with their buyer audiences. Today, we have a thriving community of sellers using eBay Live to sell handbags, sneakers, streetwear, trading cards, coins, comics, toys. Folks are using eBay Live on a daily basis to connect with their buyers and move inventory. Since last year's Open, we've made important strides in developing eBay Live tools while also opening access to more sellers in more categories. Compared to last year, we've already more than tripled the number of live events hosted on the site. We've also made eBay Live a key element of how we show up at conventions and fan events. At events like San Diego Comic-Con or the National Sports Collector Convention, eBay Live draws huge crowds of passionate buyers and offers us a chance to bring the biggest names in sports, entertainment, and social media to the eBay platform. As we look forward, we're excited about the ways to expand our existing live commerce tools to more sellers in more categories while also introducing new capabilities to get the most out of selling live, based on your own input. Soon, we'll be expanding eBay Live to the apparel category. We'll also roll out improved metrics and insights for eBay Live sellers. To ensure that buyers are finding your eBay Live events, we'll introduce an improved live hub that showcases the best of our sellers' events. If you have never considered selling via a live stream before or want to learn how eBay Live can help you connect with your buyer audience, I strongly encourage you to check out the eBay Live demo coming up during tomorrow's session. We know that many of you are already eager to start using eBay Live. We'll continue to make it more available to more sellers in the months ahead. You can use the QR code on the screen now to let us know you're interested. eBay Live has amazing potential for engaging enthusiast communities with niche interests. If it's something that people love, there should be ways for you to tap into that passion to sell live on eBay. Next, I would like to highlight the progress in our eBay Refurbished business. We continue to add new names to the list of top brands in the program. We're constantly expanding to more product categories, like certified refurbished golf equipment from Callaway, now available on eBay. Refurbished inventory plays a huge role for eBay around the holidays. Deal-seeking buyers come to eBay for a great value on refurbished items from top brands like KitchenAid, Bose, Dyson, and Sonos, and these buyers stay shopping on eBay for everything else that sellers like you bring to the marketplace. That's the multiplier effect that Jamie earlier mentioned. We're delighting buyers by giving them a great value and extra protections on refurbished items from top brands, and those buyers end up buying more, more often, and across more of the site. The same playbook that we executed for Motors, Collectibles, and Refurbished items, you can also see us applying in fashion now. You've probably heard us talk a lot about Authenticity Guarantee, our promise to protect buyers and sellers from fakes, fraud, and doubt. We built Authenticity Guarantee for luxury watches, and then in the last three years, we've grown the program to cover sneakers, handbags, luxury apparel, streetwear, fine jewelry, and trading cards, with more categories on the way. We're also expanding Authenticity Guarantee globally. Since Open last year, we've made the program available in more markets across the world across our fashion portfolio. We're enhancing trust in eBay transactions, and we're tapping into pre-loved and recommerce trends that are driving the next generation of shoppers to eBay. We've made great progress integrating Certilogo into eBay. Imagine only needing to scan your garment's tag and instantly eBay creates a listing in seconds. That's the future we're building with Certilogo right now, with more than half a billion products already using secure digital IDs to make reselling quicker and easier. I'm incredibly excited about the progress we're making to embed circularity into the future of fashion. But beyond the changes to our fashion business, the reality is that buying fashion on eBay should be fun. That's not what we were hearing from our customers, so we invested in buyer experience, making it easier, more visual, and more fun to buy fashion on eBay. With new features like the Fashion Explorer and landing pages, new personalization tools, and an AI-powered Shop the Look experience, along with more features that you'll hear about this week, there's never been a more magical and personally relevant way to find the perfect addition to your wardrobe on eBay. All this innovation is awesome, but just like with other focus categories, telling a story is a key part of the playbook. In fashion, I'm proud to say that our brand is showing up like never before. Whether it's eBay on the red carpet at the Met Gala, putting pre-loved center stage at Vogue World in Paris, being a title sponsor of the UK's hottest reality series Love Island, or partnering with music icons like Sir Elton John, we're in the right conversations at the forefront of trends that are shaping the global fashion industry. We're building authentic connections with the next generation of online shoppers. In August, we launched a new fashion brand campaign across streaming and online video, audio, digital display, social, and media partnerships. The campaign represents the next step in our brand evolution and further establishes eBay as the home of new, pre-loved, vintage, and rare fashion. You'll hear lots more about our fashion partnerships from Adrien tomorrow. On a personal note, I'm so proud of the pace of our progress through the innovations we have introduced for the fashion category: simpler, faster, and better ways for sellers to list items; exciting and fun ways for buyers to discover new style and outfit inspirations; elevating trust with Authenticity Guarantee; introducing new ways to connect buyers via eBay Live; and putting pre-loved and recommerce at the forefront of how we tell our story. We're positioning eBay as a destination for consumers to shop for and resell their entire wardrobe. Just like everything I'm wearing today, I bought on eBay. That's our ambition for the next generation of eBay shoppers. Today, it's no longer just about sneakers, watches, or handbags. They are having an impact across so much of the fashion category. The experience that we built to solve for trust in fashion has become the platform and foundation for so much more. That same playbook has worked again and again across our focus categories. All these efforts to enhance the category-specific experiences are in service to you, our sellers, so that you can keep running your business on eBay. The strategy is working. In fashion, a luxury-focused category, GMV has grown consistently year-over-year for the past six quarters despite a challenging macroeconomic environment. Refurbished products have been a standard part of our business and represent one of the fastest-growing focus category segments. Last year, collectibles was the second largest driver of focus category growth in Q2, supported by our strategic partnerships and investments in PSA and COMC. Where we have invested in executing the focus category strategy, we have turned around eBay's business trajectory and returned the US business to growth. We've built experiences that buyers and sellers love, that keep them coming back to buy more, more often, across more of the site. These results have proven that when we start with trust, narrow our focus, and tell our story like only we can, we're able to accomplish amazing things together. Thank you to all the sellers who have been on this journey with us so far. We cannot do it without you. Thank you again for your partnership and dedication. To bring it home, I'm going to ask Don to come back up.

Thanks, Ashish and Chris. It's impressive to see how far we've come in a few years to bring these category-specific innovations to P&A, collectibles, fashion, and refurbished. But eBay is a huge marketplace, and most of you probably aren't selling exclusively car parts or sneakers or luxury handbags or trading cards. Even if you're not selling in one of these categories, I want to be clear: this strategy is benefiting you. Where we've introduced focus category enhancements, we see that buyers love buying those things on eBay. And when they love buying on eBay, they buy more items, more frequently, in more categories.

Categories across the site on average. Once these buyers purchase an item in our focus categories, they will continue to shop across multiple other categories. A buyer who comes to eBay to spend $100 on a pair of sneakers ends up buying over $400 in sneakers and over $2,000 in other categories. A watch buyer who spends $500 or more on a watch spends about $5,000 on watches and over $5,000 on purchases in other categories. A PNA buyer who spends $400 on car parts will spend an additional $600 in other categories on eBay. And a trading card buyer who spends over $1,000 on trading cards will spend $1,000 in other categories. That is the multiplier effect in action, and it's driving the marketplace to sustainable long-term growth and benefiting sellers like you, even if you don't sell in the focus categories today. Outside of the focus categories, we continue to make sitewide enhancements, develop new programs, and introduce new policies that impact everyone on eBay. Whatever category you sell in, sitewide enhancements like eBay International Shipping, better payments processing, improvements to our ads ecosystem, new AI tools, and other features that you'll hear about at Open this week all benefit everyone on eBay as soon as they're launched. So when we think about how we're transforming eBay for the future, it's along those two dimensions: vertically, category by category, through programs like Guaranteed Fit, Authenticity Guarantee, and Certified Refurbished that apply to specific categories or groups of items sold on eBay and can be scaled to more and more of the marketplace. There are also horizontal enhancements across the site, things like International Shipping, ads, payments, and our advancements in AI. They can be used by everyone and anyone on eBay, whatever the item is, as soon as they're launched. And of course, we have to balance all of that with what we're seeing from consumers and the latest technology trends. Why do buyers expect and demand from an online retailer? What new technologies can make buying and selling on eBay faster, easier, and safer than ever? Next up, to talk more about the consumer trends that are shaping the future of e-commerce and where eBay is headed next, here's Thomas Walker.

Thanks, Don. Hi everyone, I'm Thomas Walker and I look after global consumer insights at eBay. We've heard a lot about enthusiasts to this point, but now let's talk more broadly about consumers. With constant change and advancements in technology, the e-commerce landscape is evolving faster than ever before. Our insights are helping to shape our roadmap to ensure that eBay remains the best place for people to buy and sell. Today I want to focus on answering three questions: What's impacting consumers? How are they reacting and how are their needs and behaviors changing? And what are the opportunities we see as a result? You may have heard of a term called VUCA to describe today's environment. We're living in a world with high volatility, uncertainty, change, and ambiguity. You don't have to look far to see what I mean. Take these headlines, for example, that speak of inflation, recessions, the impact of AI technology, political uncertainty, mental health, and so much more. For me, it feels more like a super VUCA environment. And while it may seem daunting, there's tremendous opportunity ahead for us. I like the quote from Steve Jobs. I think he said it best: innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not a threat. However, in order to innovate effectively, we need a deep understanding of consumers and how their needs, attitudes, and behaviors are changing. So let's spend the next few minutes looking at three big shifts in their mindset and how these shifts are influencing their decision making. First off, I'm sure we can all empathize with this. In this chaotic environment, when things are seemingly out of our control, consumers want to feel like they are in control. They're taking control in three key ways: by being more conscious, by using social media, and by finding ways to make things as quick as possible. Let's take a few minutes to dive into each of these to understand more about what's happening and what we can do to win with consumers. Consumers increasingly are more conscious about what they buy, and for many reasons. They are more budget aware due to reduced earning power. Consumers are feeling the pinch and they're spending less or they're trading down in favor of less expensive items, as an example from name brand to grocery owned brands. But with life feeling hard and dollars not going as far, consumers still want some light relief. They're still treating themselves to special purchases, those extras that make life feel just a little bit better. Social and ethical issues are also driving purchasing decisions, including where and how items are sourced. Brands like Ralph Lauren and Patagonia are using digital product labels on clothing to offer visibility into the supply chain, allowing shoppers to trace the origin of garments and confirm ethical and sustainable production practices. Underconsumption core is a trend with people showcasing minimalist wardrobes, secondhand clothes, and simple beauty routines. This movement, which highlights using and recycling what you have, is linked to challenges faced by Gen Z and Millennials today, including increasing economic pressures and environmental concerns. Let's not forget the huge opportunity we have as marketplace sellers. In 2024, US consumer spending on online marketplaces will reach $468 billion, with a significant portion of e-commerce sales shifting to marketplace platforms. And by 2028, online marketplace sales are projected to increase by 47% to almost $690 billion. This is more than double their 2021 levels, and it's driven by these changes in consumer behavior along with the rise of new marketplace players. But we need to understand where they look for information and how consumers are spending their dollars. Let's take a look at social media. How are consumers discovering you? Brands now understand that to be relevant and to stay relevant, they need to show up where consumers are and not wait for consumers to come to them. Social media is increasingly becoming part of our daily lives. In fact, social media is the number one channel for product discovery for Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X. In addition, Gen Z actually spends more time on social media than they do watching TV. Live stream shopping on social media platforms is rapidly evolving in the e-commerce landscape, with many brands using it to sell their products. And with the rise of AI and VR enhancing personalization and consumer product fit, this is only going to accelerate. Social media influencers are important messengers in this trend because they are the trusted voices in a community, and their endorsement of a product or brand means so much more than a brand touting its own products. User generated content enhances brand authenticity and trust. Nearly 50% of US consumers are more likely to trust a brand if recommended by a trusted online content creator. TJ Maxx has generated over $780 million this year in clothing sales through TikTok. Many influencer videos feature thrifting, they also include shopping hacks at TJ Maxx, boosting visibility among Millennials and Gen Z consumers. You'll hear a lot more from our Chief Marketing Officer Adrien tomorrow about how we're leveraging trusted influencers to tell the eBay story and promote your listings. It probably comes as no surprise that AI is a huge part of the picture. And 67% of consumers actually want brands to use AI to analyze their previous purchases along with customer information to tailor the shopping experience to their unique needs. And 73% of consumers believe AI will improve the shopping experience by saving time, making it more convenient, and creating more personalized and relevant experiences. I think a great example is Victoria's Secret. They are using Google's Cloud Vertex AI to power a virtual assistant and improve personalization in their search bar. Shoppers can now upload images of items, maybe a garment they own, to find similar fits and styles and receive tailored product recommendations based on their previous shopping behavior. Completing a transaction is increasingly easy thanks to digital wallets and biometrics, making the shopping experience seamless for consumers. eBay is making huge strides when it comes to using AI to enhance the customer experience, but I'll leave that to Eddie, our Chief Product Officer, whom you'll hear from shortly. There are lots of things we at eBay are doing to address these consumer behavior changes, and you'll hear more about them this week at eBay Open. As entrepreneurs and business owners, I want to leave you with this: things that you can do. Be transparent. Ensure the parts of the experience that are in your control are communicated and delivered well. This means no surprises about materials, shipping policies, or delays. Avoid those aha moments unless it's one of surprise and delight. Deliver superior value. Value can mean different things to different people. It could mean saving money, it might mean having choice, or finding that special item. Value is not always about low price, but it is about the right price. One consumer might want a pack of children's socks for a dollar, while another wants a range of colors to match their favorite travel dresses. You can deliver value by validating the consumer's purchase with emotional rewards. For example, add personalized touches to reward spontaneity and add charm. This could be as simple as a handwritten note. This makes the customer feel special and reinforces that they've made a good choice. Or you can let them know how their purchase impacts or does not impact the environment, again reinforcing they've made a good decision. Lastly, lean into the power of AI and social. It's imperative we reach consumers where they are. Have a social media strategy and ensure your diversified presence is both on eBay as well as on all social platforms. eBay is leveraging AI as well. Lean into our AI roadmap. You'll hear more about our AI powered ads and listings later on during eBay Open, so keep your ears perked for that. Hopefully we've given you some ideas to leverage today's super VUCA environment to help consumers feel like they're in control and they're winning. Now let's hear from Eddie Garcia about eBay's product strategy and how we are shaping the buyer and seller experience on eBay. Thank you and enjoy the rest of eBay Open. Please welcome Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Eddie Garcia.

I've always loved fashion and clothing. I remember when I was 10 years old, my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I told her I wanted to be a fashion designer and I wanted to live in London. Well, it didn't end up exactly that way, but I'm making a living doing what I love. I'm Ashley Moulder and I'm an eBay seller. So originally I went to school for fashion merchandising management at FIT, and I wanted to be a retail buyer. So I got the idea to start selling online from a friend of mine. She was a coworker. She was selling clothes online, like her old clothes that she wasn't wearing to work anymore, and I was very confused. I was like, wait, people buy that? She's like, yeah, I sold all my stuff on there. I was like, are you sure? Then a couple months later we were tight for money, so I was like, alright, I'm going to try and start selling. And then I just kind of started going and never stopped. I sold my first item in August, and then by the following April I was selling online full time. I sell mainly pre-owned denim and I also sell a lot of vintage items. I try and get pieces for everybody. I'm always looking for little tips and tricks to improve workflow and get back a lot of my time, because time is money. I think the new AI tools are really great, especially for newer sellers just getting into it, especially with the magical listing tool. One thing I've been using a lot more is eBay's AI background removal tool. You can upload a product image and then remove the background and replace it with a clean white backdrop. Quality images are really important to making sales, but photography can get expensive and time consuming very quickly. Background removal makes it super easy to get professional images where the focus is on the items that you're selling. Personally, I usually use a clean white backdrop for my items, but you can also swap in different AI generated backgrounds if you want. They have studio environments, landscapes, and lots of other options to choose from to match your personal style and brand. I love discovering new ways to work smarter, not harder, and getting the word out to help others save time, money, and grow their business.

Right, thank you Eddie. Great to see you. Let's go. Hi everyone. As Eddie mentioned, our focus is to provide you with the simplest way to run your businesses on eBay through our selling tools and experiences, so you can focus on what you do best: sell. Now, you may remember that we started testing a simplified listing flow on mobile for a few of our focused categories last year, first in sneakers and then sports trading cards. We also recently applied that to fashion in the UK. Now we've seen great results and have been working hard to bring this to life across all categories. I'm so excited to announce that this fall, our simplified listing flow on mobile is going to be live across all categories in the US and UK, and available to help you sell in the most efficient way. Here is a short video to show you some more insights from these updates.

I'm going to showcase our new and improved listing flow on native devices. I have a trading card that I like to sell. I tap 'List my item' and begin by searching for the item I'm trying to list. It's a 2024 News Flashbacks Topps Heritage Apache helicopter. I then proceed to look for a match. Once I found the result I'm looking for, I tap on the card. I'm now in the new listing flow on a page dedicated to item specifics. Here I can review or update item specifics, and I'm happy to see that many have been pre-filled for me. So I tap continue. Next, I enter the condition of my card, which hasn't been professionally graded but is in excellent condition. On the 'Describe item' step, I see that a title is pre-filled for me based on the search query I provided at the start of the flow. For my description, I use generative AI to draft one for me, which factors in all of the details I've already provided. A simple tap of a button makes this part of the process incredibly easy. After that, I add photos of my card. I've already taken them, so I upload them from my camera roll. I can use our new background swap feature to magically update the background of my main photo. I'd like my card to stand out, so I place it in an outdoor concrete surface to complement the Apache helicopter vibes. For pricing, I'd like to auction the card with a starting bid of 99 cents. Shipping is very simple. I've been presented with the two best options of carrier services to choose from, and I'd like to use eBay Standard Envelope. Lastly, I can review all of the details I filled out. Everything looks good, so I tap 'List your item'. Success! My listing is now live.

And there's another exciting update we're making for our US based sellers who use Seller Hub. We're rolling out a tool that helps you list and sell faster in bulk, utilizing our magical listing technology. Sellers will now be able to list in bulk by uploading images of your items, and then you can watch AI fill in all the item details. Then you can review before the listings are uploaded. Now our magical bulk listing tool is currently rolling out to all US sellers across Seller Hub. We're excited to hear how it works for you, so please check it out and send us your feedback. We're also excited about the possibilities for sellers to cut down the time to list. We know that this has been a pain point for you, and we're addressing it. Here is a video to show you how this will work.

As a seller, after I log on to eBay, I can go to the Selling page. Under the 'Create listing' button, there's a new option to 'Create listings from photos'. I have photos of the front and back of 20 of my trading cards, so I select the option to upload two photos per listing, click continue, then upload the 40 photos. This page shows me an overview of the photos I uploaded and how they get mapped to the new listings. I have the option to add, delete, and reorder the photos in each listing. After I've done that, I can click 'Generate drafts' and land on the next page. I see notifications informing me that title, category, item specifics, and item description have been populated based on the photos I uploaded. After I've reviewed the fields and made any additional changes, I can list all the drafts.

Now I would be remiss to not mention shipping today. First, we're simplifying shipping related decisions for you during the listing flow. For instance, we're pre-selecting the best options for your items so you can list without having to worry about shipping options. Our goal is to reduce the number of clicks as much as possible in order for you to list even faster. And earlier this year, as Eddie mentioned, we introduced combined shipping in eBay International Shipping. This will create a better experience for both your buyers and for you. Buyers purchasing multiple items from you during international shipping will actually benefit from lower shipping costs, and sellers, you can process multiple items within the same order into a single package. We hope that you've been enjoying International Shipping, and to make it even better for you, please be sure to head over to the Expo Hall and Resource Center. If you haven't had a chance to try out these features and tools, we have experts on hand to help you get set up and up to speed very quickly. Now that I've shared some updates that simplify the selling process, I would love to celebrate some new design changes that will make your experience even better on the platform. We have been making some really exciting updates across many parts of Seller Hub to make it more modern, usable, and streamlined. Many of these changes are the direct result of great feedback we have received from our seller community. Again, our goal is to provide an easy to use experience that will help you be efficient and successful in managing and growing your eBay sales. So without further ado, let's take a look at how Seller Hub will look for you. It's a transformative change, again based on feedback from you, and we hope you love it. Starting with Seller Hub overview. If you're someone who's just registered as a business seller on eBay, the overview page now provides a simple, guided, and personalized experience to help you quickly get set up for success and start selling. Switching to the account of a more tenured seller, we've made several improvements to the orders experience, and I'll highlight two to ensure you pick and ship the right item. You can now click on a photo and see all of the large size photos and item specifics without leaving the page. And to help you understand your buyer and provide the best customer service, you can now click on the buyer username and you can see their previous orders, send them a message or a coupon, and more. Okay, onto your active listings page. Here you can now see personalized recommendations to help improve the sell through of your listings, and you get a more streamlined and powerful way of searching and filtering your listings. Over to marketing. Here we've launched a brand new summary page. For those of you new to marketing, you'll get personalized information about the various tools like sale events and coupons. And for experienced marketers, you'll see your latest activity including key metrics to help you understand the performance of your campaigns. Now on to advertising. Previously under the marketing tab, advertising is now front and center with its own tab in Seller Hub. And newly designed summary and campaign management pages provide actionable metrics, ready to launch campaigns, and customized insights. Okay, and the last update I'll mention today is launching later this year. It's a freshly designed traffic page under the Performance tab. It will feature an improved graph for listing impressions and views, more details on organic versus ads related traffic, even external impressions from off-site ads. And besides all of this great data, the page will also provide custom insights to help you improve the performance of your listings. And I have one more thing to share about our mobile selling experience. We are in the process of developing a Sell Mode for our mobile app. This will be an easy way for users who buy and sell to flip to a customized mode designed and dedicated just for you as sellers, and it will be available to you literally at your fingertips. We're still testing and iterating, and we'll be sharing this experience with many of you very soon. We hope you enjoy the new look and feel of this great experience. You'll have the opportunity to opt in if you are interested, so please follow the QR code on the screen or head over to the Expo Hall to grab the code there and sign up. We can't wait to hear from you and get your feedback. And we can't wait to hear from you all. Alright, so I would now like to ask Blair Ethington, VP of eBay's Buyer Experience and Focus Categories, to join me on the stage.

Hi, good to be here and good to be back at eBay Open.

Thank you, thank you so much for joining. Well, first off, can you just share a little bit about who you are and what your role is at eBay?

Yes, I'm Blair and I'm the VP of eBay's Buyer Experience and Focus Categories. My team creates products and experiences for your buyers to keep them engaged and coming back for more treasures, ultimately helping your businesses thrive.

Yes, Blair and I work very closely to ensure that our seller experience and our buyer experience are cohesive and effective and connecting our customers on the platform. Now before I go, I have a question for you, Blair. I know you've made a lot of updates to our view item page and making sure that our sellers' items really pop on the site. Can you share some tips and tricks for how our sellers can even optimize their listings even more?

Yes, great question. So most important is to think like a buyer. When you're shopping for eBay items on eBay, what do you want to see? What pops out for you? Here are a few tips. Be accurate, specific, and descriptive. The item title, text description, and item specifics are important for not only making sure your item shows up in search, but also for clearly marketing your item to potential buyers. Good item specifics and pictures will help your items show up in our AI powered discovery tools. Also, there are a few steps to keep in mind for how you show up in search, such as returns, image quality, and competitive prices including free or lower shipping costs. Be sure to include sizes. We just launched a 'My Size' feature that enables buyers to input exactly what sizes they want to see, which is then used when surfacing different item recommendations across the item page and homepage. And it shouldn't be a surprise, but high quality images are so important. We want your items to pop, whether on the view item page, in carousels, in curated collections. Please help us to enable you to show up in the best way possible, and use those background enhancement features for sure.

That's great, thank you so much, Blair. Now sellers, as Blair mentioned, there are so many ways for you to ensure your listings show up well, and then we'll do the rest. So please take a look at the full eBay Open agenda, and we have sessions to help guide you throughout the entire process. And also, thank you so much for all of your incredible feedback. It's been really amazing to get to know you over this past year. We can't wait to help you make your businesses thrive even more. I'm going to now pass it over to Blair.

Thanks, Jotti. As Jotti mentioned, this year we're upgrading the experience for the buyer in a few significant ways to make your listings stand out and help you sell faster, because when you win, we win. For instance, we've redesigned and reimagined the view item page, which is now live globally as we mentioned in last year's Open. First, we reduced the number of columns from three to two to bring more visibility to the image and title on the screen. We've also made the image bolder and bigger, making it easier for buyers to inspect the item. And we've made it easier to scan critical information like seller information, location, and return policy, elevating and increasing trust with the buyer. All of these changes help your buyers understand your items better, and we plan on continuing to enhance the experience, including testing AI tools that will give buyers the information they're looking for faster so they can reach your inventory. And soon you'll be able to include FAQs on your listing so you can address those questions you get often right away. Now I'm going to share the great updates that we're making to keep buyers happy and on the platform. As you've heard from Jamie, we've been exploring many ways to utilize AI to bring fun and exciting shopping to our platform. Shoppers are interested in finding items in new ways. The process of scrolling through items in a list with titles and small thumbnails isn't as appealing to the new generation of buyers. So we've made huge efforts to make the buying experience amazing. A few ways we're doing this is by providing browsable, discoverable experiences similar to what you might find in a physical store, and personalized and relevant recommendations to help our buyers feel special and understood. Also, historically eBay has been great at finding things you know you want, but what happens if you want to browse without knowing what you want right away? We're making the browsing experience better through AI. We're utilizing AI to transform the way buyers find what they love and shop in a different way. We recognized that shoppers want an experience online similar to what they find in store: an opportunity to browse, discover, and find items that are just right for you and the buyers. We recently launched 'Shop the Look', which leverages GenAI to create shoppable content and fashion recommendations. Shop the Look is live on the US on iOS and in the UK, and we will evolve this experience throughout 2024, including adding additional styles, greater diversity of outfits, and more. And we have 'Explore', a new AI powered shopping feed enabling users to browse nearly unlimited lists of personalized recommendations based on interests such as the user's style preferences and sizes. Explore launched earlier this year in the UK and we're testing in other markets. And how does it help you, our sellers? Because by giving our buyers a more customized experience, we're connecting them with you and helping them fall in love with your inventory and keep coming back for more. Fashion forward buyers come to eBay to find the clothing they love, and we've discovered that those buyers stay shopping on eBay for everything else that sellers like you bring to the marketplace. That's what we like to call the multiplier effect. For instance, we're delighting buyers by giving them inspiration and great finds in fashion, and those buyers end up buying in more categories and making more purchases on eBay. I hope you're as excited as we are. Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure to share all the great things that we're doing to keep our buyers happy and excited about their experience shopping on eBay. Now I'm going to turn it back to Eddie.

So wow, what an incredible first session we've had here at eBay Open 2024. Before we head into all of the training sessions, let's take a moment to recap some of what we saw. All of you said in the chat this morning, maybe talk about some of what we saw this morning.

Yeah, first of all, I want to let everyone know all the content that you saw this morning, plus the category sessions, the training sessions, the seller labs, everything that you'll see will be available for replay here in the event platform and then also on the eBay YouTube channel. Now there was a lot of excitement for Jamie's opening keynote, and he set the stage for all of eBay Open 2024. During all of the keynotes today, I saw some comments. I saw comments about Thomas' section with all of the insights. His is always one of the most popular sections of course. Chris P., our Motors guy, told us all about everything that's happening with eBay Motors. Saw a couple of shout outs for him. And then just now, Eddie, Jotti, and Blair told us about all of the features that are new and upcoming. Oh, and I don't know if you guys saw this, if you miss the QR code, we'll add it into the chat or you can stop by the Expo Hall and get the link there.

Awesome. Now I noticed that some folks wish that they had been able to be at one of the kickoff parties. So did you know? I know that you guys know this. Yeah, we have sellers that meet locally all over the country all the time. Again, head to the Expo Hall and click on Community to learn more and find one in your area, or you can even start one. It's not that scary. It's fun to start a new group. You can start one in your local area, or there's networking groups in the morning tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 9:00 Pacific. Okay, right. We hope everyone will join and you can learn more there. Well, I hope that you all enjoyed this first part of the day and that there was something that you've learned or able to take away to help grow your business. And each of those sessions that we're going into next, they are going to have a Q&A tab right where you can answer questions. And you guys have done that. You've gotten answers there. There's staff standing by to answer your questions, so please use the Q&A tab. And of course, as you guys know, keynotes are for everyone, but if you're an experienced seller like the folks here on stage with me like Ken and Anna, we have great sessions to help level up your business. One of the things that you want to get out of this for sure. And if you're newer to selling on eBay, there are sessions to help you learn and start growing. So check out everything in the 'My Agenda' tab to plan the rest of your time here today and back here tomorrow. And no matter where you are watching from, whether it's your spare room or your living room or your e-basement, maybe your warehouse or your home office, our hope is that there will be something for you. Now earlier we asked your location, and you are all across the country. Did you see? It was so cool to see that in the chat. I saw Cincinnati, Ohio. That's my hometown. Did you see? I saw Boston for sure. Saw some Southern Illinoisans with me. Yeah, absolutely. Cleveland, Myrtle Beach. Where else? Oh, Florida and Texas. Lots of Florida and Texas. Really, the list goes on. You're all over the country. But you know what? I always wonder, you guys, like where are you actually watching from? Is it your couch? Is it your shipping station? Doing a little multitasking? Or where?

So definitely I used to watch from my garage when I first was really tuning into eBay Open. That's where I ran my business from, and there was no AC out there, but I was like, got to be in the zone and focus, you know? My business was like all around me, so it was a great place to watch. But by the next year I had a home office, so that was a lot better.

Oh, that must have been really exciting moving into an office.

Yeah, for sure.

Now Ken, I know that you were looking forward to watching the keynotes as well. So like, did you have a favorite part?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, everybody knows I'm a sneaker head, but what you might not know is I'm also a car guy. I love cars. So I definitely love hearing about eBay Motors partnered with the auctioning of the Ken Block connection. I watch Ken Block driving on YouTube a lot, all the time. So that was definitely... I think he's one of the greatest drivers in rally, and also those stunts that he did was great. But speaking of F1, I'm a Lewis Hamilton fan with Mercedes team. Lando, okay, yes. But since eBay partnered with McLaren, I'm willing to wear orange and I've been rooting for them. And by the way, they're now leading the Constructor's Cup, and I think they're going to win it this year. So hopefully eBay Motors, maybe I'll be able to watch them in person someday. Maybe.

So Ken, I'm a little surprised and kind of impressed because I really thought you were just going to talk about fashion. I thought that'd be your go-to.

Oh, I am. I mean, speaking of fashion, the 30 logo integration was fire. Imagine creating listings in seconds, scan in the tags. And that's definitely going to level up my listing game. I'm going to be a listing monster by then. And there's so many things going on with fashion. New York Fashion Week, and we had the red carpet, Met Gala, Paris, the UK reality TV show. You are a fashion guy.

Yes, I try. I keep up, I keep up.

And definitely partnering with the music icon, yes, the Rocket Man himself. I was so excited to see that collab with Sir Elton John. Cool. I love him so much.

Well, my favorite announcement has to be about Sell Mode. I really can't wait to start using that because I really do use the eBay mobile app very differently when I'm selling versus when I'm buying. And there's going to be so much more at our fingertips and tools that are right there that we can use on mobile. So I'm definitely going to use that QR code and sign up for that ASAP. And I also just like to be reminded, I find it really encouraging to hear about the focus categories because I actually don't really sell in a focus category. I have a lot of different items, it's very miscellaneous in my store. But I love to hear how those focus categories are really bringing buyers to eBay who are going to shop for the things in my store also. Like the big strategy of it makes sense to me, and I really appreciate hearing about that.

Yeah, that's great. Thank you.

So Ken and Anna, you guys apparently really connected with all of the exciting news and updates today. And I hope that all of you watching are ready for even more to come. So it is almost time for a break and a chance to stretch your legs, maybe get some water for everyone who's watching out there. I mean, or if it was me, I would be heading to the kitchen right now, make some coffee and grab some snacks.

Not Ken talking about snacks. Snacks. You know I'm the snack guy here. I mean, even here in eBay, I know where the snacks are stashed. So there you have it.

But let's ask everybody, what's their favorite go-to snack while watching eBay Open? I mean, everybody in the chat, I want you all to participate. We're going to do a poll right now. If you had to choose, which of these snacks would you pick right now? Head to your kitchen. Are you going to pick fruits or veggies? Or chips? Something sugary like candy? Or all the chocolate you want? Or some cheese and meat? I mean, make sure everybody hit that vote, vote, vote. I want everybody to vote because who knows, we got to know the go-to snack for eBay Open.

And I should say veggies, but I have to admit it's probably chocolate. Chocolate for me. Sorry, Anna.

The poll agrees. What would be your pick?

I would go with the meat and cheese personally. Charcuterie is my love language.

Alright, now there you go. No, but no matter which one you pick, you know, make sure you grab one, make sure you sit down, relax, eat your snacks, and let's get it going. But we are still just at the start, because next up we have training sessions, and then Anna, your favorite, yes, the Seller Labs. So excited for those.

That's right. And then before the second set of sessions, we will have some fun. So join us back here for a fun game called Bid Battle. I cannot wait for that one. I want to win some swag.

Sorry, I hate to break it to you, can't everyone out there. We'll share you guys on. It is going to be so much fun.

Absolutely. Well, thank you both so much for being here. It makes really, really fun to have you guys on stage here with me talking with everyone. And thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. Stick around because there's a lot more to come.

A lot more, a lot more.

There's so much going on that's going to be fun.

I started selling as a casual part-time seller, and when it came time for me to retire and start that second career, it never really dawned on me that I would want to do eBay. Fast forward, and here I am. I chose to sell on eBay full-time for the flexibility and freedom it provides me and my family for vacations and day-to-day life.

I've been a clothing designer for the past 15 years, and during the pandemic I felt like I just wanted a change in career. I found Funko Pops and started collecting them on my own, and I was having so much fun, so I decided to start selling them on eBay.

My background is as a recruiter, and I was working 11-hour days, and I quit that job because my husband and I decided that family was more important than money. But it was a close call. I started selling on eBay just to clean out the house, and then I thought, oh my gosh, if I can make this a full-time income, I don't have to go get another job. And I never have had to get another job.

I've been selling on eBay seriously for about 7 years now. And when I first started, I was kind of all over the place. And when I really focused in on what I enjoyed selling, that's when my business really started to thrive. I built systems in place in my business that just let me treat it more like a business and less of a hobby.

What inspired me to sell on eBay? Well, I had a bunch of items in the closet that I wanted to get rid of, and eBay is a global platform, and it made the transition very, very easy, so it was a no-brainer. One piece of advice that I would give to new eBay sellers is to take it day by day and trust the process. You'll make plenty of mistakes, but that's all part of being an eBay seller.

I started doing this in college. In 2 years on the trot from when I started it, I've sold over $500,000 of sneakers, which is really important for me because it's allowed me to buy my family a house and allowed me to put myself in a financial situation where I can bless others. One piece of advice for new sellers is that I would take lighting and photography super seriously. In order to sell your items, you got to make sure that your lighting and your photography is super in-depth so that all the pictures of the items are able to be seen and that no questions would be asked.