eBay Puts "Resell" Button Front & Center In Purchase History In Latest Bid To Boost Enthusiast Buyers
eBay buyers perplexed and frustrated by new "resell" button featured prominently in purchase history on the eBay app in latest bid to boost "enthusiast buyer" stats.
Users recently noticed the big blue button under their purchase history, expressing frustration that it makes leaving seller feedback more difficult and wondering if that might be related to the roll out of automatic positive feedback for sellers across the site.
Why do my purchases have “resell” instead of “leave feedback” on the purchased items list?
I used to know exactly which purchases needed feedback because there was a “Leave Feedback” button under them in the purchased items list, but now instead of leave feedback, it says “resell.”
I’m not going to open all those orders to see whether I left feedback and I’m not going to resell them. If ebay wants me to leave feedback for my purchases, then can they put the “leave feedback” button back on the purchases and get rid of the “resell” button? It’s silly.
Could it be due to eBay's new "automatic feedback" thing? If feedback hasn't been left within seven days of receiving the item, and tracking shows that it was shipped and delivered on time, eBay will automatically give those sellers a positive feedback.
Users in the UK are also seeing this change in the eBay app.
Purchased items -resell????
More page layout changes the options have been swapped about but what I can’t get my head around is this new resell option on purchased items.
Making it easy for buyers to resell items they've purchased isn't new - the desktop experience has a similar option called "Sell this item", which just like the "resell" button, will create a new draft listing with details like title, item specifics, stock photos (if applicable) and more copied over from the original listing to streamline the process.
But putting it as the default highlighted option in the app, rather than in a drop down menu, is new according to these reports and it's likely that design decision is being driven by eBay's desire to boost a key statistic for their quarterly financial reporting - Enthusiast Buyers.
eBay defines "enthusiast buyers" as those who shop on eBay at least 6 times per year, spend at least $800 per year or those who also sell on the site.
The idea was originally cooked up as a way to counter concerns that overall Active Buyer stats have dropped significantly to below Q1 2018 levels.
By designating a subset of the buyer base as "high value enthusiast buyers" and showing growth in that segment, eBay was able to spin the story that overall active buyer losses were not important because they were mostly those who shopped infrequently or didn't spend much money while the truly "valuable" buyers were sticking around and even increasing.
And that worked, for a while in 2021-2022 when that segment was still growing on eBay with not insignificant help from the larger pandemic ecommerce boom.
But in Q4 2022, the number of "enthusiast buyers" dropped from ~17 Million to ~16 Million - which is where it has stayed since, including eBay's most recent Q2 2025 earnings report.
eBay leadership has been pulling out all the stops trying to reinvigorate Enthusiast Buyer growth over the last year, specifically focusing on what should be the easiest of the criteria to meet: buyers who also sell on the platform.
Importantly, that criteria could also be stated a different way as sellers who also buy on the platform - no matter which direction it goes, eBay is looking to activate the all important "flywheel effect" of having users who both buy and sell on the site.
In Q4 2024, eBay turned to legacy discounting tactics to try to boost this statistic, offering coupons to users in both the US and UK that were clearly targeted toward turning sellers into shoppers so they could be counted as "Enthusiast Buyers."
Liz Morton
But those discounts failed to move the needle as the Q4 earnings report showed Enthusiast Buyers was still stuck at ~16 Million.
eBay continued that same discount offer throughout Q1 2025, and also continued to move the needle, with Enthusiast Buyers still at ~16M in the Q1 report.
Liz Morton
The company then desperately upped the ante in Q2 2025, giving them a coupon worth $50 instead of the previously offered $15 discount but requiring a purchase of $125+ to get it.
Liz Morton
For the sake of keeping the math easy, if someone used that $50 coupon on a $125 order, that would work out to a massive 40% discount - but even that was not enough as Q2 2025 earnings still reported Enthusiast Buyers stuck at ~16 Million.
That brings us to Q3 2025, with eBay looking to boost adoption of it's livestream shopping platform by offering generous discounts to both buyers and sellers to incentivize using eBay Live in July.
Interestingly, this discount offer appeared to target the "purchases at least 6 times per year" criteria rather than the "buyers who also sell" criteria for Enthusiast Buyers.
Liz Morton
What is the Promotion?
Invited buyers (“Buyer” or “Buyers”) who buy an item for a minimum price of $10 during the eBay live event within the Promotion Period (as defined below) pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth herein (“Qualifying Purchase”), are eligible to earn a multi-use eBay Coupon (“Coupon”) worth up to $100 off a minimum purchase of $200. The coupon may be used up to 4 times with a minimum purchase price of $50 per transaction to get $25 off.
An item is defined as purchased when it is paid in full by the buyer.
How do I earn the Coupon?
The Coupon will be awarded within two weeks after the Qualifying purchase is completed. Once awarded, the Coupon will be visible in "My eBay.”eBay will also send an email with the Coupon. The value of the Coupon will be worth up to $100 off a minimum purchase of $200 up to 4 redemptions of $25 each. Minimum purchase price $50 per coupon to get $25 off.
The Coupon is not transferable. The Coupon is subject to other terms and conditions. Limit of one (1) Coupon per user., which can be used up to 4 times. Users have until the date listed on the Coupon to redeem on ebay.com.
The terms and conditions also showed the coupon would have a 90 day redemption window - making it obvious that eBay was specifically trying to target that offer to have the most impact for their Q3 financial results.
With 1 purchase needed to earn the coupon and then having the ability to apply the discount up to 4 times, that already adds up to 5 out of 6 purchases required - and if eBay just happened to "invite" buyers who had already made at least 1 purchase in the last 12 months, they would magically become an Enthusiast Buyer just from this offer, even if they don't make any more purchases in the next 12 months.
Switching discount tactics to focus on the other criteria could be a tacit admission that eBay has had trouble converting new buyers to sellers (or new sellers to buyers), that many of the users who are most likely to participate on both sides of the marketplace may have already been doing so and gaining new "Enthusiast Buyers" under that criteria wasn't as easy as eBay hoped it would be.
In that light, it could make sense to try to optimize design for the purchase history page to emphasize "resell" over leaving feedback for sellers and it's not uncommon for eBay to test things like this in the app vs desktop experience.
eBay doesn't break out the Enthusiast Buyer figure by criteria to show which one represents the largest share, but it will still be interesting to see if they finally manage to eke out any growth in that area when the company reports Q3 earnings, which is typically around the end of October.
