eBay: How A Global Marketplace Reduces Overproduction & Consumer Waste

Forbes

21-05-2025

eBay: How a Global Marketplace Reduces Overproduction & Consumer Waste
On its launch day in 1995, eBay (then known as AuctionWeb) listed its first item: a broken laser pointer. Founder and board member Pierre Omidyar had created the site over that year's Labor Day weekend. He was surprised when the item sold—for $14.83.
Years later, self-described 'electronics geek' Mark Fraser from Salt Spring Island, Canada, surprised Omidyar for eBay's 20th birthday celebration by coming forward as the buyer of that seminal item. Fraser said he figured he saved about $85 by buying the thing used and rejiggering it himself.
It remains a prime example of eBay's mission to connect people and build communities that create economic opportunity for all, according to Chief Sustainability Officer, Renee Morin.
Senior eBay people have used Omidyar's founding philosophy as a touchstone now for a generation. In the early days of the web, he saw, corporations were flocking to the new tech, but 'nobody out there was really talking about using the web to empower other people.' Enter eBay.
eBay: How a Global Marketplace Reduces Overproduction & Consumer Waste
Expansive Impact
Today eBay is a massive global online marketplace empowering millions of buyers and sellers to engage in commerce of new – and pre-owned – goods. How much merchandise? $18.8B gross volume in Q1 2025. That's $2.6B in revenue for a single quarter. 134M active buyers worldwide. 190 markets around the world. 2.3B listings. It's big.
The fact that much of that commerce involves the exchange of used items made eBay an early pioneer in sustainability, says Morin. eBay's platform inherently encourages reuse and circular commerce, she says, aligning it naturally with the mainstays of sustainability, some of whose principles didn't gain traction online or offline until at least a decade later.
With a primary goal of extending product life cycles – Morin calls it 'giving second life' – the company manages to reduce waste and support 'conscious consumerism,' she says. In fact, the company adopted that term early enough to argue they were a forerunner. Its recommerce business [see box below]
has taken millions of metric tons of carbon emissions out of the environment—equivalent to removing more than 300,000 cars off the road each year.
'There are very few companies so born out of sustainability,' says Morin, 'or with sustainability so fully integrated.'
Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the company often receives accolades for its investment and leadership in the circular economy (again, they were one of the earliest users of the term). The economic system aims to keep products and materials in use for as long as possible, by, for example, increasing the lifespan of things that are manufactured, and/or reducing waste. The eBay model achieves both.
As Morin explains, 'recommerce' – simply, the process of selling (or re-selling) pre-owned goods – is one key action within the full circular economy that eBay has really nailed. Product reuse, refurbishment, repair, and related strategies all extend the useful life of many consumer goods that filter through eBay's platform. Remember the broken laser pointer? Mark Fraser was still using it 20 years later!
Recommerce at a glance
Says Morin, 'When you think about the genesis of circularity, it really is the design and the birth of a product, all the way to its end of life. So, when I talk about circularity for eBay – in particular e-commerce – we're the circle within the circle.'
'Once something's been produced, somebody's used it, where can you actually impact the life of that product? A platform like eBay [creates a] marketplace that sells used and refurbished goods, 'pre-loved goods.' That circle within the circle is really our sweet spot.'
'One of our favorite stats to use both internally and externally with investors is that forty percent of our GMV is from goods that are part of recommerce. So, the pre-loved, those refurbished goods. They are innately part of our strategy to have recommerce front-and-center.'
[PULL QUOTE:
'What's really special about recommerce is that you might be doing it because you're getting a better value, but the environmental benefits are still part of that transaction, regardless. So, you could be a conscious consumer and make that decision purposefully. Or you might not be, but you're still reaping the benefits. The planet is still reaping the benefits of the avoided emissions, the avoided waste as part of that ecosystem.'
—Renee Morin, CSO
END PULL QUOTE]
'How that ties to us as a purpose-driven company makes it easier for my job for sure because so much of our business is steeped within recommerce and circularity of products.'
'But when you talk about the operations of eBay, it's just as important—and that's where I spend a lot of time with my team. A lot of our time is making sure that we're walking the walk of sustainability' in as many ways as possible, she says.
'Yes, we have this consumer-facing interaction with sustainability through e-commerce, but the way that we operate and reduce our own emissions and set targets and are transparent with our disclosures is all part of who eBay is.'
'I think that also engenders more trust, not just with that interaction with the product online, but the company through which you're purchasing these goods or selling.'
Meantime, 'When my nephew goes online to buy whatever basketball he decided he needed this week, and it's used, it's right there and it's easy to find. That decision isn't complicated. I think that sustainability in general is overly complicated,' says Morin. 'We need simpler decision-making tools' like those at eBay. 'We need to take the 'decision' out of [sustainability] a lot of times, honestly, so that it's just part of our day-to-day life, being sustainable because it is the easy thing to do.'
That's how eBay serves consumers such as Morin's nephew—and serves sustainability.
[Start SIDEBAR:
eBay by the Numbers: 2024
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eBay: How a Global Marketplace Reduces Overproduction & Consumer Waste
Sales—or Service?
The recommerce marketplace increases financial equity and economic opportunity for individual vendors (non-corporate entities), says Morin, in accordance with eBay's founding principles. 'We build communities to create economic opportunity for all.'
How? eBay promotes small business regardless of geography or formal education of its proprietors. It benefits underserved seller communities through seller education, grants, and community support. And, of course, it offers an easy-to-enter, easy-to-maintain 'egalitarian' platform for people to increase their own income, ultimately building more generational wealth.
In 2024, small businesses contributed approximately 70% of GMV in its three largest markets by demand (US, UK, and Germany).
So, if you think about it, Morin says, eBay is in the service industry. Because one of the 'ripple effects of recommerce,' according to the company, is that 'our work creates waves of change for our customers, our company, our communities, and our planet.'
The daughter of a military dad and educator mother, the niece of an uncle from one of the first or second tranches of Peace Corps volunteers, Morin says, 'I think service has always been a part of me.'
'I remember when I was in high school or maybe even junior high, going around with a petition to ban Styrofoam traysfrom the cafeteria. I ended up in the Peace Corps [in Gabon] when I graduated from college [at Wake Forest University].'
A sustainability veteran with a career spanning strategic ESG planning, supply chain optimization, and performance metrics, Morin says she most enjoys translating complex 'Big Data' into tangible sustainability gains. She's been doing that at eBay for seven years; she became CSO in 2020.
Her approach might be rooted in metrics, but Morin often expresses it through storytelling—bridging the gap between scientifically robust analyses and what she calls 'accessible, values-driven communication.'
Morin is particularly passionate about telling the stories of eBay for Charity, a program that facilitates philanthropic giving by allowing sellers to donate a percentage of sales to vetted nonprofits. 'We continue partnering with community organizations and nonprofits that support and uplift local communities around the globe,' she says. eBay for Charity raised more than $192 million for global nonprofits in 2024 alone, with more than $1.3 billion raised and 225,000 charities enrolled since the start of eBay for Charity more than 20 years ago.
Bidding on a positive future
As a leader in her field, Morin says, 'I am one of the odd ones who's come from a more traditional environmental sustainability route. My background is in science—chemistry. I was in consulting for a very long time, starting in the regulatory, environmental world.'
'I have a lot of that technical background and have been able to parlay that into more of a C-Suite role throughout this latter part of my career. So, I always tell folks, especially the younger demographics who want to pick my brain, there's not only one way to get into the seat. There are a lot of different paths that you can take.'
There's only one requirement, Morin says: 'You have to be passionate, and you have to be persistent for sure.'
Finally, she insists, 'We have a lot of good systems in place. We have a lot of small wins that people don't necessarily hear on the storytelling side. But, progress is being made.'
'Is it hard? Yes. But this was never going to be an easy job. So, I think, yeah, you have to remain optimistic. I'm optimistic. Or else I think I'd retire at this point.'