… And these are the top places where they’re doing it.
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of eBay, 42% of US adults are currently turning to sites like eBay to save money on purchases.*
“Our research has shown that the local business climate is one key factor in fostering entrepreneurs,” says Todd Stottlemyer, president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, America’s leading small-business association. “eBay clearly offers everyone additional opportunities to start, grow and maintain a business, whether they’re looking to market globally or simply to earn additional income in the current economic climate.”
The list of top-10 eBay** selling markets last year, by rank:
1. Los Angeles–Long Beach, California – 196,089 Los Angeles residents sold 24,051,645 items for a total of $1,396,037,518.
2. New York – 158,859 New York City residents sold 12,621,651 items for a total of $1,045,503,913.
3. Chicago – 172,972 Chicago residents sold 10,229,844 items for a total of $908,708,440.
4. Philadelphia – 120,900 Philadelphia residents sold 7,069,212 items for a total of $584,383,915.
5. Dallas – 85,484 Dallas residents sold 5,003,292 items for a total of $754,493,210.
6. Orange County, California – 75,486 Orange County residents sold 6,945,490 items for a total of $636,654,084.
7. Washington, D.C. – 112,462 D.C. residents sold 5,024,888 items for a total of $393,720,726.
8. Houston – 76,450 Houston residents sold 4,297,389 items for a total of $528,872,858.
9. Nassau–Suffolk, New York – 70,714 Nassau–Suffolk residents sold 5,396,880 for a total of $400,253,200.
10. Fort Lauderdale, Florida – 39,623 Fort Lauderdale residents sold 2,838,954 items for a total of $631,845,063.
In total, the sellers in the above 10 markets generated over $7 billion in GMV in 2007, accounting for 55% of all sales by US-based eBay sellers. Which I guess is interesting in and off itself. For me, however, what was more interesting, was the finding that 1 in 10 US adults is currently selling personal or household items via online sales and that 30 percent of all adults surveyed said that they are likely to sell their personal or household items in the next three months to earn extra cash.
I’d like to see a similar survey targeted at eBay buyers. It would be interesting to see the parallels and discrepancies between the two lists.
One final note, I was pleasantly surprised to see the town normally stereotypically associated with self-worth, leading the pack of charitable sellers. Los Angeles sellers donated the most of any city in the country via ebay Giving Works.
* The Current Economic Climate survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of eBay between April 7 and April 9, 2008, among 2,363 U.S. adults ages 18 plus, of whom 215 are currently selling personal or household items to earn extra income as a result of the current economic climate. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, and therefore no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
**To identify the top-10 eBay selling markets in the United States, the survey examined eBay seller transactions between the period of January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2007. The top 10 markets were then determined using a weighted measure that took into account the number of sellers, quantity of items sold and amount of sales generated within each market.
