eBay UK launches new support packages as it records a 237% boom in small shops setting up

Online marketplace eBay UK has announced it has recorded a 237% rise in new small businesses joining the platform since the start of the pandemic last year, the equivalent to a new business registering every 2 minutes.

The new small businesses have reportedly sold over 72 million items to eBay UK’s 29 million shopper base in the past year.

As high streets and small businesses are enjoying the final phase of lockdown restrictions lifting, eBay UK has committed to help entrepreneurs survive and thrive beyond the pandemic, as part of its new Small Business Power campaign.

The new package of support includes a series of new seller offers, including reducing fees by 5%, as well as 75% off new listing costs for existing and new business sellers.

It also includes investment in training programmes to help sellers make the most of the eBay platform and further investment in marketing its small business sellers across TV, social, print and online media.

This new package follows a £33 million investment from eBay UK over the last year to help its community of hundreds of thousands of small businesses weather the challenges brought on by COVID-19. The focus has now turned to how eBay UK can help power these new businesses to grow and scale up as the UK unlocks.

Home & Garden, Electronics and Fashion were the most popular categories for new businesses setting up on eBay UK in the last year, with the greatest number of businesses created.

Rob Hattrell, Head of eBay Europe commented: “Business will be paying the price of COVID for years to come, and it’s small businesses that will bear the brunt of this. It is now more important than ever to shop small and shop local - whether that is in-store or online - and to keep supporting and celebrating the power of small businesses. Our new support package, as part of our Small Business Power campaign, aims to do just that and we hope the 29 million buyers on our platform will join us in backing Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit.”

Along with eBay UK’s continued investment in small businesses, earlier this year the marketplace committed to absorbing the cost of the Digital Services Tax for its hundreds of thousands of small business sellers, while other platforms passed this cost onto sellers.