eBay Traffic Drops in First Quarter from a Year Ago

eBay Traffic Drops in First Quarter from a Year Ago

we looked at March traffic data for eBay and Amazon in today's Newsflash newsletter. While eBay's numbers had declined year-over-year, Amazon.com's numbers had increased. I remembered that there was a correlation between fourth quarter 2008 traffic numbers and sales, so I took a look at eBay's first quarter 2009 traffic data.

Using data provided by Nielsen Online, I added the first three months of 2008 and compared them to 2009. eBay had a 5.8 percent decline in unique visitors in the first quarter 2009 compared to the same quarter last year, and its page views were down 25 percent (very similar to the declines in March alone).

It will be interesting to look at eBay's first quarter GMV numbers when it releases earnings on Wednesday to see if there is a similar traffic-to-sales relationship in the first quarter as in the fourth quarter. (Amazon.com reports its numbers on Thursday.)