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Rise of the eBay Millionaire

Once perceived by many as an auction site for second-hand goods, eBay.co.uk is now the UK’s largest online shopping destination. Now, with 61% of the goods sold at fixed costs and over 17m unique visitors every month, eBay predicts that the number of million pound businesses trading on the site will increase by 25% in 2011.

With over 40 million live listings and 180,000 registered businesses in the UK alone, ebay.co.uk is just one part of the eBay Inc. empire that has provided a powerful shop window for businesses of all shapes and sizes since being founded in 1999.

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Millionaire Growth Areas:

  • 1. Home & Garden
  • 2. Fashion
  • 3. Motors
  • 4. Consumer Electronics

Indeed with one item purchased globally every second via its online App alone, the opportunity to generate sales from this virtual high street seems solid. But for those lucky few, eBay has opened up a global market and export –led growth – both of which are said to be behind the rise of these eBay millionaires.

Explaining the reasons behind this success, Angus McCarey, Retail Director for eBay UK said:

“We’ve seen a surge of businesses starting up on eBay since the recession which shows the vital role online businesses play in supporting the fragile UK economy. Many eBay businesses including some of our millionaires are selling offline as well so their total contribution to the UK economy is even more substantial.”

Millionaire Hotspots:

  • 1. London
  • 2. Birmingham
  • 3. Nottingham
  • 4. Manchester
  • 5. Wakefield

While London comes out as the top-hot-spot for eBay millionaires, the rest of the top 5 is occupied by locations north of the Watford Gap, suggesting a very real North/South divide when it comes to those occupying the exclusive millionaire row of ebay.co.uk.

Do you use eBay as a shop window to the world?

Published by Simon on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 at 9:37 AM

3 Comments

Jannys Boutique on September 20 2011 at 2:02 PM

I have been a power seller for a number of years on eBay and it used to be a fantastic place to make a second income. Unfortunately these days it’s become very difficult to make a profit due to the massive fees and eBay’s favouritism towards the big shops. I’m now looking at alternative UK sites like Mudpool and Castoff. Hopefully one day someone will create some competition to eBay’s monopoly.

Geoff Mirekin on September 20 2011 at 3:14 PM

eBay should never have let traders on their site... it makes it almost impossible to find true private bargains, but eBay are just there to make money, so they had no choice.

What they COULD do is have separate feeds for commerical/private sellers, that would stop a lot of heartache. But then unscrupulous traders would simply register as private I guess!

Chris on December 20 2011 at 6:18 PM

I agree, businesses have ruined ebay's 'bargain' persona. You have to trawl through pages of products to find an auction bargain. A lot of the business products can be bought for less or similar through reputable online stores with decent warranties. There should be a way to filter them out, not just to omit the 'buy it now' items as mant businesses circumvent this by putting on phony auctions with closely priced 'buy it now' below it. I use Mudpool and Amazon now.

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