eBay announced its withdrawal from the French Black Friday event in 2022

In order to comply with the trend of sustainable development and limit overconsumption, eBay announced that it will not participate in the large-scale promotions on French Black Friday in 2022 this year.

And going forward, new products will no longer be promoted on the homepage, but alternatives such as second-hand products, refurbishments and spare parts will be emphasized.

In addition, eBay also promotes refurbished product programs with relevant brands such as Dyson and Philips, and encourages consumers to participate in product evaluation activities for free to give them a second life.

Likewise, during Christmas, eBay will only highlight refurbished or second-hand products for gifts and decorations on the network.

In this regard, Ségolène de Noray, marketing director of eBay France, admitted that competition in the French market is very fierce. Now eBay hopes to return to its original values ​​and cultivate consumers' environmentally friendly consumption habits to adapt to the green consumption trend, thereby increasing communication with consumers.

This means that although eBay accounts for a large share of French e-commerce, it has keenly sensed the crisis from market competition and has chosen to adjust its strategic direction in a timely manner, using second-hand products and the second-hand market as a new fulcrum for future performance growth.

In fact, eBay has been secretly working on this for a long time. As an important part of substitutes, the spare parts market has great potential. According to relevant reports, the average annual growth rate of auto parts will reach 8% from 2021 to 2025, and the value of the global motor vehicle parts market may reach 3.81 trillion US dollars in 2025.

Obviously eBay is aware of this trend. It currently has more than 500 million parts and accessories worldwide. Previously, in order to improve the shopping experience in this category, eBay acquired the myFitment Group, which includes myFitment, LLC and Illumaware, LLC. It hopes that consumers can use tools to find auto parts that meet their needs at reasonable prices.

Céline Saada-Benaben, general manager of eBay France, also stressed the importance of spare parts sales to eBay, pointing out that in the past five years, eBay has achieved a 70% growth in spare parts sales for repairing home appliances, cars and bicycles. In addition, eBay will continue to promote and provide the same support to sellers and buyers of other parts as it does for auto parts.

In addition to the huge imagination given by the second-hand market, perhaps the decline in its own performance and consumer purchasing power are also important reasons that have prompted eBay to refocus on second-hand products such as refurbished products, accessories, and collectibles.

With the impact of the economic recession, consumer demand has weakened, and as eBay France management has admitted, French consumers' attention to eBay is gradually declining.

What’s more serious is that eBay is now in a situation of weak growth and lack of stamina. According to eMarketer data, eBay’s market share has been declining year after year, and this year it has dropped to 3.5%. Therefore, avoiding competition from other platforms and finding another way to attack the second-hand market may allow eBay to regain vitality.

With fierce competition in traditional fields, eBay has chosen to focus on the second-hand market. In a recent study of sustainable markets in Europe, eBay ranked second, second only to Vinted. For sellers, this is also a new idea. They can consider clearing the unsalable inventory generated during the sales process as second-hand goods, and use the free training services provided by eBay to develop more sustainable products and seize the opportunity to enter the second-hand e-commerce market.