eBay Sees Slow Merchandise Growth

eBay Sees Slow Merchandise Growth
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eBay shook investor confidence with slow growth in activity across its marketplace and a lackluster forecast, highlighting its ongoing struggle to emerge from the shadow of Amazon, according to Bloomberg.

The company reported gross merchandise volume, the value of all goods sold, increased 3 percent to $21.5 billion in the second quarter, a marginal gain from 2.4 percent growth in the previous period. Its platforms attracted 2 million new buyers in the period ended June 30, the same number as the previous quarter, for a total of 171 million global active buyers.

eBay forecast adjusted profit in the current quarter of 46 cents to 48 cents a share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 49 cents. Revenue will be $2.35 billion to $2.39 billion, the company said in a  statement. Analysts projected $2.32 billion.

Second-quarter profit was 45 cents a share on revenue of $2.33 billion, compared with analysts’ projections of 45 cents on sales of $2.31 billion. Revenue from StubHub, EBay’s tickets marketplace, gained 1 percent to 227 million, compared with a 15 percent year-over-year increase in the previous quarter.

eBay CEO Devin Wenig has committed to a “structured data“ initiative with the goals of making it easier to navigate the site’s 1 billion listings, giving their merchandise more prominent placement in Google searches and providing merchants greater insights about hot-selling products and prices.

Wenig is trying to differentiate eBay in an industry dominated by Amazon, which has about double the customers, more web traffic and faster sales growth. Adding to the pressure are big investments by Wal-Mart to expand its e-commerce business as shoppers defect from stores to buy more online.

In June, eBay announced a price-match guarantee on more than 50,000 items to lure bargain hunters to its site. It’s rolling out free three-day shipping on millions of products this year to compete with Amazon’s two-day shipping pledge to subscribers of its $99-a-year Prime membership. eBay emphasized its free shipping without a membership fee during a July marketing campaign designed to snag business on Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale.