eBay fashion – After years of being dismissed as the “internet’s flea market,” eBay is leaning hard into fashion resale—backed by authenticity guarantees, luxury watch checks, and high-profile cultural partnerships—to win back shopper confidence as competition from Vinted an
When eBay talks about fashion resale, it doesn’t start with trends—it starts with trust.. Kirsty Keoghan. general manager of EU Fashion & Luxury at eBay. says the company has been doing “preloved fashion” for decades. and she argues that credibility is especially crucial when buyers are shopping online.
“One of the things that you can’t argue with, we’ve been around for 30 years,” Keoghan told Business Insider. “We are the OG of buying and selling preloved fashion.”
That insistence comes as eBay works to reverse a reputation it hasn’t been able to shake: in the eyes of many shoppers. secondhand online still reads as a bargain-bin free-for-all.. The company has now been leaning into fashion’s biggest pain point—whether items are genuine—while trying to make its listings feel more at home in today’s celebrity and Gen Z-driven culture.
Keoghan’s comments sit inside a broader comeback story for eBay’s business.. Since Jamie Iannone took over as CEO in April 2020, the company’s shares are up around 185%.. The move has also boosted performance expectations among investors, with the stock up over 30% year-to-date.. In its first quarter results, released in April, revenue was up 19% year-on-year.. Fashion contributed double-digit year-on-year growth, led by categories focused on luxury, streetwear, and pre-loved clothing.
Iannone’s turnaround strategy has centered on “verticals. ” with focus categories built inside them to attract enthusiast buyers like sneakerheads and vintage luxury shoppers.. A key part of that push was implementing authenticity guarantees within these focus categories.. The approach started with sneakers in the US in 2020 and then expanded to other markets and products.. Most recently, eBay integrated a luxury watch authentication service that flags stolen watches in the UK.
“It’s [trust] important for everybody when shopping online, particularly with pre-loved,” Keoghan said. “But I just think particularly for luxury, it’s such an important part of our strategy.”
Alongside the trust infrastructure. eBay has been trying to reshape how people see the brand—by showing its inventory in moments that traditionally belong to mainstream fashion.. The company teamed up with Vogue and singer-songwriter SZA to source her outfit for the 2026 Met Gala.. It has also partnered with the popular TV series “Love Island” in the UK since 2022 and worked with American influencers such as Emma Chamberlain.. The goal. Keoghan said. is to put pre-loved fashion “at the forefront” of major fashion touchpoints so people start thinking about it differently.
“The reason why we’ve done that is so that we can put pre-loved fashion at the forefront of some of these really big fashion moments and get people to think about fashion really differently,” Keoghan said.
eBay has gone even further through relationships with celebrity stylists. One ambassador, celebrity stylist Harry Lambert, dressed Harry Styles in a pre-loved outfit sourced from eBay for a shoot for his latest album launch.
There is also a clear corporate stake behind these efforts.. In February, eBay reached an agreement to buy Depop, the resale platform loved by Gen Z, for $1.2 billion.. The deal has not yet been finalized.. The acquisition sits within a recent chain of events that included a bid from GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen to buy the company.. eBay doubled down on the idea that it is better off alone, and investors scoffed.
Still, eBay’s fashion ambitions don’t appear to be built around a single audience. Keoghan said the company does not have a specific core customer in mind.
“We’ve got all of the other categories, which I think for us is like our superpower because you can come and buy fashion and you can also go and buy or sell a desk or a sofa,” Keoghan said.
That broader marketplace approach meets fierce competition in secondhand retail.. Since eBay launched. younger companies such as European-headquartered Vinted and US-based Poshmark have emerged. making the secondhand e-commerce market fiercely competitive.. When Vinted dropped its seller fee. eBay followed suit in the UK and Germany. but it is yet to do the same in the US.. Keoghan said she welcomes the competition.
“I think it makes us all up our game,” she said.
With rivals pushing on fees and consumer attention. eBay says it is also trying to reduce friction for sellers using technology. including AI features such as AI-generated descriptions and a background enhancement tool.. Keoghan framed those improvements as part of the company’s push to make selling and buying smoother.
“Using innovation and technology to do that is really key for us at eBay,” she added. “We’re just trying to continue to make those better and better and better. So it makes it really easy for our customers.”
The pattern in eBay’s recent fashion strategy is consistent: it pairs a trust mechanism in product authenticity—starting with sneakers in the US in 2020 and later adding an authentication service for luxury watches in the UK—with high-visibility cultural partnerships. while financial momentum from Iannone’s turnaround shows up in shares up around 185% since April 2020 and a 19% year-on-year revenue gain in April’s first-quarter results.
For now. eBay’s “glow-up” is being measured on multiple fronts at once: investors watching the stock. shoppers judging whether secondhand feels credible. and competitors testing whether fees and features are enough to hold mindshare.. The Depop deal. pending finalization. adds another lever to that effort as eBay tries to keep fashion from feeling like an internet afterthought.
eBay Depop acquisition fashion resale authenticity guarantees luxury watch authentication Jamie Iannone Kirsty Keoghan Ryan Cohen Vinted Poshmark AI seller tools