Year In Review: The Policy Shifts, Marketplace Updates, Leadership Shakeups & News That Shaped Online Selling In 2025
From shipping rate hikes and fee increases to executive shakeups, platform updates and new feature roll outs, 2025 kept marketplace sellers on their toes.
This year‑end review revisits the most-read Value Added Resource stories that captured those shifts, spotlighting the policy changes, product misfires, and leadership decisions that defined the marketplace landscape for merchants large and small.
By far the most read article of 2025 was this piece on ongoing USPS losses and financial trouble as rates for Competitive products are set to rise in January and the Postal Service seeks new pricing power to set Market Dominant rates for 2027 and beyond.
Liz Morton
Major changes for eBay UK, including introducing a Buyer Protection Fee after dropping private selling fees last year and expansion of Simple Delivery managed shipping, also topped the charts, with sellers in the US wondering if any of those initiatives will be making their way across the pond in 2026.
Liz Morton
Sellers around the globe were also highly interested in updates to eBay's Promoted Listings ad attribution policies that hit Europe, UK and Australia this year and will be coming to the US and Canada in January - massively increasing the number of sales incurring ad fees while providing little to no increase in actual sales or return on investment and raising concerns about lack of transparency, unfair business practices and potential harm to sellers and consumers.
Liz Morton
Exclusive Value Added Resource reporting on the 2019 eBay stalking scandal and ongoing resulting civil litigation has drawn significant attention this year, with the Department of Justice finally confirming ex-Senior Security Director Jim Baugh's CIA past and continued delays by eBay and former executives pushing trial date out to March 2026.
Liz Morton
Other Top Stories Of 2025
The threshold for federal 1099-K reporting has been raised back up to $20,000 and 200 items for tax year 2025 and beyond after passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
Liz Morton
Amazon agreed to a surprise $2.5 Billion settlement of FTC lawsuit which alleged the company used "dark patterns" to trick customers into signing up for Prime subscriptions that were purposefully hard to cancel.
Liz Morton
Etsy CEO Josh Silverman is stepping down at the end of the year, with Kruti Patel Goyal taking the helm - but new leadership faces growing concerns about lack of GMS and Active Buyer growth as well as how to balance AI plans with "keep commerce human" ethos.
Liz Morton
Poshmark sellers have had a roller coaster year with CEO Manish Chandra and other co-founders stepping down as Korean parent company Naver looks to put their stamp on the marketplace with controversial new policies and practices.
Liz Morton
The end of the de minimis exemption and tariff turmoil caused significant cross border shipping disruptions and delays in August as many international postal services temporarily paused shipments to the US as they scrambled to put new systems in place to comply with Delivery Duties Paid requirements.
Liz Morton
And finally, ecommerce marketplaces could soon lose their "get out of liability free" card as Congress considers bill to sunset Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which currently provides broad immunity to online platforms for content posted by their users.
Liz Morton
As marketplaces map out their next moves for 2026, seller voices matter now more than ever!
Share your top issues, concerns, and wish‑list improvements for the platforms where you sell and help shape Value Added Resource investigations and coverage for the year ahead - submit your 2026 Marketplace Seller Wish-List now!
Thanks for supporting Value Added Resource and happy new year!
