eBay NASDAQ: EBAY reported first-quarter 2026 results that topped its guidance and consensus expectations, as gross merchandise volume (GMV) accelerated across major categories and geographies despite what executives described as ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.
During the quarter, GMV rose 14% year-over-year to $22.2 billion and revenue increased 17% to $3.09 billion. Non-GAAP operating income climbed 18% to $907 million, while non-GAAP earnings per share increased 21% to $1.66. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Iannone attributed the outperformance to “a broad-based GMV acceleration across all of our major categories,” along with improved trends across most key markets.
Strategic priorities drive the bulk of GMV
Iannone said eBay’s “most established strategic priorities” now account for roughly 70% of total GMV, including focus categories, consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and recommerce (pre-owned and refurbished). Each of those areas grew faster than overall GMV in the quarter, with management describing combined growth as “high teens” year-over-year.
Focus categories posted 24% GMV growth, which Chief Financial Officer Peggy Alford said outpaced the rest of the marketplace by 15 percentage points. Iannone pointed to investments in trust, product experience, and full-funnel marketing as key contributors.
Collectibles, motors, and fashion show strength
Collectibles were the largest contributor to GMV growth in Q1, according to Iannone. The company cited demand tied to the 30th anniversary of Pokémon in late February and “strong late-season demand” in sports trading cards across the NFL and NBA, as well as Major League Baseball releases. eBay also noted strength in other collectibles such as coins, toys, action figures, and comic books.
Management highlighted a temporary lift from gold and silver bullion tied to precious metals prices. Iannone said that demand “began to normalize in late Q1 as expected and should revert to historical levels in Q2,” a point Alford later referenced as a driver of the implied growth deceleration in second-quarter guidance.
Within off-platform marketplaces, Iannone said TCGplayer “growth remains strong” and Goldin accelerated to “a new quarterly GMV record.” He also noted a “landmark” sale: a Pokémon Pikachu Illustrator card sold for over $16 million, which he said became “the most valuable trading card ever sold at auction.” eBay’s AI-powered card scanning tool surpassed 30 million cumulative scans, and expanded beyond sports to cover additional collectible card game genres including Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and One Piece.
In eBay Motors Parts and Accessories (P&A), Iannone said the business delivered its strongest year-over-year GMV growth since 2021 and contributed about two points of overall marketplace growth. He credited increased conversion on fitment-enabled listings tied to the company’s Guaranteed Fit program. eBay expanded Authenticity Guarantee for P&A to Australia and acquired Eladene Systems, a U.K.-based salvage yard software provider, which eBay expects will bring more recycled P&A inventory onto its platform.
On vehicles, Iannone said eBay is expanding beyond C2C transactions to begin serving small dealerships, and that the business “exited Q1 at an annualized GMV run rate in the $hundreds of millions.” He also emphasized expected synergies between vehicles and P&A, arguing that vehicle purchases can drive repeat engagement in parts and accessories.
In fashion, Iannone pointed to ongoing expansion of Authenticity Guarantee, including broader eligibility for “pre-loved and luxury apparel, shoes, and accessories.” He said eBay expanded the program in the U.S. to more than 70 shoe and fashion accessory brands, and also streamlined garment sizing across global standards. The company’s seller-facing AI tools, including “the latest generation of Magical Listing,” contributed to a “mid-teens year-over-year increase in casual fashion listers,” he said.
C2C initiatives and eBay Live scale up
Management positioned C2C as a key driver of differentiated inventory and recommerce. Iannone said C2C delivered double-digit GMV growth across the U.S., U.K., and Germany, and “meaningfully outpacing B2C growth” in those markets. eBay plans to revamp its consumer selling experience in Australia in May by removing selling fees for consumer sellers and introducing a buyer-facing fee on C2C transactions, alongside updates to seller segmentation and managed shipping services.
eBay Live also emerged as a major talking point. Iannone said Live is now operating in seven markets globally and has been scaling rapidly, with an “annual GMV run rate more than 8 times higher year-over-year in recent weeks.” eBay cited improved discovery in the mobile app, including an eBay Live button in the bottom navigation for U.S. iOS users, and described “48 hours of drops” in the U.S. as setting a new daily record with each day 60% above the prior Black Friday record. The company also highlighted 24-hour events in the U.K. and Germany that each reached “7-figure daily GMV milestones.”
AI and partnerships expand reach and reduce friction
Iannone and Alford repeatedly emphasized AI-driven product changes. Iannone said the newest version of Magical Listing has been “one of the most impactful launches we’ve had in years,” driving a more than 50% increase in new listing creation rate, double-digit increases in sold items and GMV per lister, stronger retention, and a “material increase” in estimated lifetime value for sellers using it. eBay began expanding the experience to new and reactivated listers in Germany in April, with early A/B tests showing “directionally similar uplift,” Iannone said.
On the buyer side, eBay’s “agentic search beta” is designed to allow conversational, multi-turn refinement of search results. Iannone said sessions using AI-powered refinements are showing about 50% more search engagement, translating into double-digit percentage increases in purchase behavior, though he stressed it remains early.
eBay also discussed distribution partnerships. Iannone said the integration of eBay inventory into Facebook Marketplace search results moved to general availability, enabling eBay inventory in the search box for the majority of Facebook Marketplace users in the U.S., Germany, and France.
Shipping initiatives were another focus as trade policies shift. Iannone said eBay continued to scale eBay International Shipping in Canada after a Q4 launch and expanded SpeedPAK access for sellers in Germany and six other markets. Alford said shipping program revenue grew double digits in Q1 and is becoming a more meaningful contributor to take rate.
Financial details: ads, margins, capital returns, and outlook
Alford said foreign exchange was a tailwind to spot GMV growth of about 400 basis points and a tailwind to spot revenue growth of about 260 basis points. U.S. GMV growth was “nearly 27%,” she said, while international GMV rose more than 2% on an organic FX-neutral basis (with a 770-basis-point FX tailwind to spot growth). Trailing 12-month active buyers grew 1% to nearly 136 million; in the U.S., buyer growth accelerated to nearly 6%. Enthusiast buyers were about 16 million and grew nearly 2%, with trailing 12-month spend per enthusiast buyer above $3,400.
Take rate was 13.9%, “up modestly year-over-year,” Alford said. Advertising revenue totaled $581 million, with first-party ads up 28% to $555 million. Promoted Listings exceeded 1.2 billion of more than 2.5 billion total listings, and 5.2 million sellers used at least one Promoted Listings product. Non-GAAP gross margin was 74.6%, up one point year-over-year, driven mainly by lower payments costs and operational efficiencies, and also benefited from a change in U.K. managed shipping revenue recognition from gross to net beginning Jan. 1.
eBay generated $898 million in free cash flow and returned $639 million to shareholders through repurchases and dividends. The company repurchased $500 million of shares at an average price of about $90 and paid a $0.31 per share quarterly dividend totaling $139 million. eBay ended Q1 with $5.1 billion in cash and fixed income investments and $6.7 billion in gross debt.
Alford said eBay expects its pending acquisition of Depop to close by the end of the third quarter of 2026, with regulatory clearances received in the U.S. and Germany and ongoing reviews “on track” in other markets including the U.K. and Australia. With the updated timeline, eBay expects Depop to contribute about one percentage point to total FX-neutral GMV growth in 2026, and to be a low single-digit headwind to operating income growth and a low single-digit dilutive impact on non-GAAP EPS growth.
For Q2, eBay guided to GMV of $21.3 billion to $21.7 billion (8% to 10% FX-neutral growth), revenue of $2.97 billion to $3.03 billion (8% to 10% FX-neutral growth), non-GAAP operating margin of 27.6% to 28.1%, and non-GAAP EPS of $1.46 to $1.51. For the full year (excluding Depop’s impact), Alford said eBay is “now planning our business around” FX-neutral GMV growth of 7% to 7.5% and non-GAAP operating income growth of 9% to 11%, with capital expenditures expected at 4% to 5% of revenue and about $2 billion in share repurchases targeted for 2026.
About eBay NASDAQ: EBAY
eBay Inc is a global e-commerce company that operates an online marketplace connecting individual consumers and businesses for the sale and purchase of new, used and collectible goods. Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and headquartered in San Jose, California, eBay grew from its early auction-style site into a diversified platform offering both auction-format listings and fixed-price "Buy It Now" transactions. The company completed an initial public offering in the late 1990s and has since evolved its platform and services to support a broad range of product categories and buyer preferences.
The company's core business centers on its marketplace platform, which provides listing, search and transaction capabilities for millions of items across consumer goods, electronics, fashion, collectibles and more.
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