eBay’s Q2 2026 GMV rises 15% to $22.4 billion as the $1.4 billion Depop purchase closes

eBay reported second-quarter 2026 results on 5 August 2026, with gross merchandise volume (GMV) of $22,398 million, up 15% as reported and 14% on an FX-neutral basis¹. Revenue was $3,134 million, also up 15%, and the marketplace had 136 million active buyers, up 2%¹. The Depop acquisition closed on 30 July 2026¹. Our analysis is that the quarter was strong on volume but that two cost lines, sales and marketing and transaction losses, rose faster than revenue, which matters to sellers because eBay recovers costs partly through the fees and advertising it sells.

What did eBay report?

The release gives these headline figures for the quarter¹.

• GMV: $22.398 billion, up 15% (14% FX-neutral).
• Revenue: $3.134 billion, up 15%.
• Active buyers: 136 million, up 2% year on year.
• Advertising: total advertising revenue of $596 million, or 2.7% of GMV.
• Earnings per share: $1.21 on a GAAP basis and $1.60 non-GAAP, from continuing operations.

eBay does not disclose a take rate in the release. Dividing revenue by GMV gives roughly 14.0%, which is our calculation, not a reported figure¹.

What did the Depop deal cost?

eBay agreed in February 2026 to buy Depop, a peer-to-peer fashion marketplace, from Etsy, Inc. The base price was $1.2 billion in cash, subject to purchase-price adjustments¹. The deal closed on 30 July 2026, and eBay paid $1.4 billion in cash including preliminary adjustments that are subject to finalisation¹. Value Added Resource, citing Etsy's securities filing, reports that Depop had 2025 revenue of about $186.6 million and an operating loss of about $108.9 million, and says eBay does not expect Depop to add to non-GAAP operating income until 2028². Depop is expected to add nearly nine million buyers to eBay's reported figures from the third quarter².

Where did costs rise?

Value Added Resource highlights two lines²:

The publication says eBay linked the rise in transaction losses to consumer protection costs tied to its shipping programs, and that management said losses improved from the first quarter without breaking down the drivers². We have not seen eBay's own wording of that explanation in the release we retrieved.

What does this mean for advertising and fees?

Value Added Resource reports first-party advertising revenue of $570 million, up 25%, a record 2.7% of GMV that management wants to lift to 3% over the medium term, and says about 5.7 million sellers used at least one advertising product². The publication also reports that since January a Promoted Listings General fee applies when any buyer clicks a promoted listing within 30 days, even if a different buyer completes the sale, so more sales qualify for ad fees². It says eBay has not said how much ad growth comes from this change or whether sellers' return on ad spend improved².

Our analysis: a 3% advertising target on a platform of this size means pressure to sell more promoted placement. Sellers who use Promoted Listings should compare ad-attributed sales against their own order data, because a click-based attribution window of 30 days can credit an ad for a sale it did not cause.

What did eBay guide for the third quarter?

eBay expects third-quarter revenue of $3.07 billion to $3.12 billion, and GMV of $22.0 billion to $22.4 billion, which is 10% to 12% growth on an FX-neutral basis¹. Earnings per share are guided to $0.94 to $0.99 on a GAAP basis and $1.36 to $1.42 non-GAAP¹.

CEO Jamie Iannone said the quarter "delivered meaningful, broad-based momentum driven by continued innovation"¹.

What should sellers do?

These are our recommendations, not eBay's.

• Check your Promoted Listings report against orders. Match ad-attributed sales to the actual buyer and date before raising any ad rate.
• Re-run your fee model for shipping. The cost pressure eBay describes sits in shipping protection, so confirm that the shipping cost you quote equals what you pay.
• Do not plan around fee changes that were not announced. eBay has said nothing in these sources about a US fee change, so treat reports of one as unconfirmed until it appears on eBay's own fee pages².

What is still unknown?

The release does not break down GMV by category or give the number of active sellers¹. We also did not retrieve eBay's earnings call, so management comments here come from the release and from one secondary summary^1,2.

What should a seller watch in the third quarter?

Three things stand out. First, the guided GMV range of $22.0 billion to $22.4 billion is a benchmark; if eBay lands at the low end, the growth rate sellers see in their own categories may be slower than the 15% headline¹. Second, the cost lines: if transaction losses and marketing keep rising faster than revenue, eBay has an incentive to recover them through fees, shipping programmes or advertising, which would show up as changes announced on its seller pages rather than in a results release². Third, Depop's integration, since eBay says it will fund shipping affordability there partly through tiered buyer incentives, which may influence how fashion sellers split their stock between the two marketplaces².