The insight: Etsy and eBay see opportunity to gain share as tariffs burden their competitors and consumers adjust their spending habits.

• Both companies are well-positioned to benefit from renewed interest in resale as tariffs make buying new more expensive for shoppers.
• The two platforms also now face less competition from Shein, Temu, and Amazon in online ad auctions—allowing them to be more efficient with marketing spend and reach more potential customers.

An optimistic view: From the perspective of Etsy and eBay, the US consumer is in good shape. Both companies reported healthy demand in an otherwise subdued quarter for consumer spending.

Demand in Q2 was “more favorable than we expected,” eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said on the company’s earnings call, citing “broad-based strength” across categories like collectibles, luxury, apparel, and motor parts and accessories.

• Shoppers not only bought more items but were also willing to pay more for them: Average selling prices rose during the quarter.
• That’s partly due to tariffs on Chinese imports, but also because customers took advantage of the company’s BNPL partnership with Klarna to purchase more expensive items.
• Momentum has continued into July, contributing to eBay’s bullish Q3 outlook.

Likewise, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman noted that Q2 spending was “relatively stable,” a trend which is largely continuing into Q3.

• The company is seeing “slightly healthier consumer spend across all the different cohorts,” Silverman said, with no big differences between higher- and lower-income shoppers.
• It helps that Etsy is doing a better job of reaching shoppers—not only by taking advantage of the empty ad space left behind by Shein, Temu, and Amazon, but also by ramping up its paid social and influencer spending, and refining the Etsy app to offer a more compelling array of products.

Our take: While neither eBay nor Etsy is fully immune from the effects of tariffs—and their potential drag on the economy and consumer confidence—they are less exposed than most other retailers. As marketplaces, neither platform is responsible for shouldering the cost of the duties, and any tariff-induced shift to resale would give both eBay and Etsy’s Depop a serious boost.

With retail trends shifting in their favor, Etsy and eBay are poised to reclaim share.

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