EBay Inc. forecast quarterly revenue and profit for the crucial holiday shopping season largely below market estimates, sending its shares down 8 per cent in extended trading. EBay faces overwhelming competition from Amazon.com Inc. and brick-and-mortar retailers that are fast beefing up their online presence.
Tigress Financial Partners analyst Ivan Feinseth said, “Most of what is being sold on eBay is new product, and that can be bought anywhere for almost the same price”.
EBay has revamped its platform to offer a bigger selection of products and more brands and to require sellers to give more details on products to attract younger shoppers.
As per research firm FactSet StreetAccount, the company said it had 165 million active buyers on the site, missing by a hair analysts’ estimate of 166.5 million. The company has made investments to improve the platform’s inventory management.
Edward Jones Research analyst Josh Olson said, “This has been about 18 months now that we’ve been hearing the same thing…we’re kinda waiting for the returns on the investments”.
