On July 21, eBay released their 2nd quarter results -- and we finally have seen some good news ala growth:

• US GMV (i.e. total sales) grew by 5% vs. 3% in the previous quarter
• Sold items grew by 4% vs. 3% in the previous quarter
  
• $2.23B in revenue -- beating earlier estimates of $2.17B

And whereas only 1M active users added in the quarter (i.e. flat from Q1), it still represents a 4% growth rate -- good for the platform and good for sellers!

Now, truth be told, a good chunk of the revenue came from Stubhub (ticket sales), but it's a good leading indicator for the marketplace as a whole and the eBay management's willingness to invest in innovation and execute to deliver tangible results.

The other indicator of future growth is their continued commitment to structured data.  By structured data it is meant objective, pre-defined details that describe an item: UPC, Manufacturer, Part Number, and the like.  

eBay is saying that items with structured data convert at a rate of 10% more than those without -- a huge upside for sellers who can provide that structured data in their listings.

The good news for CommerceESB customers is that we make it easy (in fact, standard) to collect all the structured data required and include as part of the listing process.

If you need more detail on how we help your eBay listings with structured data, please ask your account manager!

July 12 saw the second Amazon Prime Day (the previous was in July, 2015).  

So...how'd it go?

According to Amazon, it went amazingly well:

• 60% larger vs Prime Day 2015
• Sales from marketplace sellers (3P) were up 30% vs. Prime Day 2015
• Discounts were up over 200% vs. Prime Day 2015

The interesting caveat is that Prime Day growth was bigger overseas than in the US -- a great indicator of Amazon's international growth strategy success.

The other interesting note is about discounts (the 200% above) -- the pressure for great deals continue.