eBay Winter 2026 Seller Check-In: Live Growth, AI Listing Updates & New Financing
eBay's Winter 2026 Seller Check-In put eBay Live front and center as the company touted continued growth in livestreaming, rolled out more AI listing improvements and introduced new seller financing options, along with updates to shipping, advertising and other seller tools.
eBay Live Growth & Seller Incentives
eBay Live continues to be a major focus for the company, with Jaiven reporting eightfold year-over-year growth in livestreaming transactions and a multibillion-dollar annualized run rate as the service expands to additional sellers, categories and international markets.
Those figures follow previous disclosures of rapid Live growth, though geographic expansion, promotional incentives and existing sales shifting to livestreaming make it difficult to determine how much represents genuinely new marketplace activity.
Liz Morton
Jaiven also said more than 90% of regular eBay Live sellers have grown their overall GMV, with a median incremental GMV increase three times that of matched non-Live sellers. In collectibles, first-time Live buyers reportedly spend approximately 70% more across eBay than a comparable control group, with about half of that additional spending occurring through traditional listings.
According to footnotes in eBay's presentations, the seller growth figures are based on data from April 2026 covering sellers who streamed at least four times per month for six months and had at least six months of prior selling history. The threefold GMV increase was measured against matched sellers based on size, category and trends, while the buyer spending figures use a synthetic control group. eBay did not provide further details about the methodology or indicate whether sellers who tried livestreaming but stopped were included.
During the dedicated Live breakout, Business Development Manager Mike Parisma highlighted eBay's more established buyer demographic, payment verification requirements and prohibition on giveaways as differentiators from competitors like Whatnot and TikTok.
"We have learned that we want to make sure that we are enticing the right buyers," Parisma said, rather than attracting viewers interested only in free products who leave once a giveaway ends. He also pointed to buyers willing to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars during Live events.
Following the September expansion of self-service Live registration, eBay said further category expansion will depend on having enough interested sellers to support dedicated channels. The company is also using its Up & Running Grants program to encourage Live adoption, awarding ten small businesses $10,000 each this year to help launch or expand their livestreaming operations.
In a particularly ironic moment, the promotional video opening The Future of eBay Live breakout still featured longtime seller and former luxury consignment partner Linda Lightman of Linda's Stuff declaring:
"I've hitched my wagon to eBay, and we never looked back."
Apparently, someone forgot to update the video after Linda's Stuff moved its selling and livestreaming business to rival Poshmark earlier this year.
Liz Morton
Linda's Stuff was one of eBay's largest fashion sellers and its exclusive US luxury consignment partner, with Live growing from one weekly show to 23 and eventually accounting for 44% of the company's revenue. But after Poshmark acquired its dedicated operational facilities in August, the business wound down its eBay operations, and by October 24 its longtime eBay storefront was unavailable and its website was directing shoppers to Poshmark instead.
That's an awkward testimonial to continue using while encouraging other sellers to invest more of their businesses in eBay Live.
AI Bulk Listing Improvements
eBay is rolling out another round of improvements to its AI-powered bulk listing tool, including upgraded photo recognition and new options for organizing multiple listings, as the company continues addressing problems with a feature first introduced in 2024.
In July 2025, sellers reported significant problems with the tool, including AI suddenly failing to identify basic trading card information it had previously handled correctly, forcing users to manually enter details like player names, card numbers and brands.
During the Winter Check-In, Seller Strategy team member Kelsey Lubie and Product Manager Nima Kumar demonstrated an upgraded AI model designed to better identify items and details from multiple photos, particularly in categories like fashion where recognizing brands, materials and sizes can be challenging.
The updated bulk listing experience also allows sellers to manually group photos into individual listings, rather than requiring every item to have the same number of images. The existing option to automatically group photos by a fixed count will remain available for inventory like trading cards and postcards, where sellers may consistently use front and back images.
"Two items might look similar, but details like brands, materials, size, or conditions can make a huge difference to buyers," Kumar explained, adding that improving the accuracy of AI-generated recommendations remains a priority.
The demonstration showed some promising results, including identifying a specific Nike shoe model and size, but the AI still struggled with some trading cards. One required the presenter to manually enter the card name to generate more complete information, while another could not be identified until the correct category was selected. A later portion of the demonstration also encountered problems generating listing details.
eBay says the system only automatically populates information when it meets certain confidence thresholds, with sellers responsible for reviewing and correcting the results before publishing. Lubie said corrections should be relatively rare, though the demonstration showed why that review remains important.
The company is also increasing the maximum number of photos per listing from 12 to 24, but the bulk photo-upload experience remains desktop-only and does not support listings with variations. Mobile uploads are being explored, while seller requests for customizable AI instructions and an option to use photo grouping without AI received no firm commitments, with eBay emphasizing that sellers can override generated content before publishing.
Parts of the upgraded experience are already available to some sellers, with broader US rollout expected over the coming months and into early 2027. eBay is also extending the improved AI model to its Inventory Mapping API, with larger third-party listing software providers beginning to receive access and further developments expected later in the first half of 2027.
New Seller Capital Financing Through Fundbox
eBay is adding another financing partner to its Seller Capital program, announcing a new business line of credit through Fundbox that will give eligible sellers access to $5,000 to $2 million, with repayment terms ranging from three to 24 months.
Unlike existing Seller Capital business cash advances, which are repaid through a percentage of daily eBay sales, the Fundbox line of credit allows sellers to draw from an approved credit limit as needed, with fixed weekly or monthly payments and available credit replenishing as amounts are repaid.
According to the Seller Capital program page, Fundbox charges a fixed fee for each draw, with no origination fee or charge for unused funds. Checking eligibility does not affect the seller's personal credit score, though financing costs and eligibility vary by business. The fixed repayment schedule also means payments remain due during slower sales periods, unlike the sales-based cash advances offered through Liberis.
The announcement continues eBay's changing approach to seller financing since separating from PayPal and losing access to the popular PayPal Working Capital program. In January 2024, eBay replaced LendingPoint with Funding Circle for traditional small business loans, then added cash advances through Liberis later that year.
In 2025, eBay also introduced Open Banking capabilities, allowing financing partners to consider financial data from outside eBay when evaluating sellers for funding.
During the breakout session, eBay said its Seller Capital products have provided more than $1 billion in financing to sellers globally, though it did not specify the time period or provide a breakdown by partner. Eligible sellers can review available financing offers through the Payments section of Seller Hub.
Holiday Shipping & Advertising Updates
Kelly Joe McIntyre, who leads shipping operations for eBay North America, advised sellers not to extend their handling times to compensate for holiday carrier delays, saying eBay monitors shipping networks and adjusts estimated delivery dates as needed.
"Your responsibility is simply to ship within your stated handling time," McIntyre said. "As long as you do that, you will receive credit for shipping on time, even if the carrier experiences delays after you've handed off the package."
McIntyre also acknowledged frequent changes to postage rates, saying eBay is advocating for more predictable pricing with its carrier partners. The comments come amid continued shipping cost increases and uncertainty over USPS plans for a weekly variable fuel surcharge beginning in January 2027, after the Postal Service recently published and then removed information about the proposed fees. Sellers were also encouraged to offer expedited shipping and consider additional protection for higher-value shipments during the holidays.
On the advertising side, Scott Hickle highlighted expanded availability of Promoted Stores Custom for eligible Store subscribers, allowing sellers to select between five and 1,000 listings per campaign, feature up to ten items and direct buyers to specific Store pages or categories.
Liz Morton
Hickle also encouraged sellers to use eBay's suggested ad rates for Promoted Listings General, which update daily based on demand and competition. Sellers can choose fixed rates or allow automatic adjustments up to a maximum cap, with eBay recommending regular reviews of advertising budgets and performance during the holiday season.
Seller Business Pulse & Other Updates
eBay also introduced Seller Business Pulse, a personalized version of its monthly Seller News email that began rolling out in October, giving eligible sellers account-specific performance information alongside the usual platform announcements.
The emails include sales, listing views and conversion rates with comparisons to the previous month, along with recommendations based on individual business performance. Some sellers will also receive category insights, including popular searches and top-selling items, while others will continue receiving the standard Seller News emails.
A separate breakout session revisited the Issue Resolution Center introduced earlier this year, which consolidates account compliance requirements and listing policy issues in one place.
Former eBay employee Chuck Van Pelt, who worked in seller advocacy for ten years before becoming a full-time reseller, also led a breakout session on improving business efficiency through inventory management, automation and other seller tools.
Van Pelt said rising shipping costs have forced him to reconsider inventory that can't sell for more than $20 shipped, often bundling or removing those items rather than continuing to list them individually. He also described using ChatGPT to analyze approximately 1,745 record listings and suggest bundles for slower-moving inventory, reducing what would otherwise have been days of manual work.
The full main session is available below. Recordings of the breakout sessions were not yet available on YouTube at the time of publication.
