EBay Inc has forecast bleak first-quarter results, as the e-commerce platform tackles waning online demand, stiff competition and global supply chain disruptions, sending the company’s shares down nearly 9%.
E-commerce companies raked in large profits as online shopping boomed last year during the pandemic, but vaccine rollouts could spell trouble as people return to brick-and-mortar shopping.
Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc has also forecast first-quarter sales below analysts’ estimates.
EBay expects first-quarter adjusted profit in the range of $1.01 to $1.05 on revenue of $2.43 billion to $2.48 billion; both estimates came in below Wall Street’s expectations.
Shares of the company, which originally started as a site where people would auction their collectibles, fell to $50.28 in extended trading on Wednesday. They declined 18% so far this year.
Meanwhile, the company posted an adjusted profit of $1.05 per share on revenue of $2.61 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, above analysts’ average estimate of 99 cents per share profit at $2.61 billion revenue, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
However, gross merchandise volume, the total dollar value of sales on eBay from which the company takes a percentage, fell 10% to $20.7 billion.
Annual active buyers on eBay also declined 9% to 147 million in the quarter, the company said.
The team at Platform Executive hope you have enjoyed the ‘[post_title]’ article. Automatic translation from English to a growing list of languages via Google AI Cloud Translation. Initial reporting via our official content partners at Thomson Reuters. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru. Editing by Shinjini Ganguli.
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