E-commerce giant eBay has recorded a 237 per cent increase in small shops setting up on its marketplace in the last year.

The company said the new generation of “pandemic startups” was equivalent to a new business registering every 2 minutes as it announced a new support package for small businesses.

eBay’s latest data shows that businesses have sold over 72 million items on the marketplace to its customer base of more than 29 million.

Home & garden, electronics and fashion were the most popular categories for new businesses setting up on eBay UK in the last year, with the greatest number of businesses created, as budding entrepreneurs saw the opportunity to capitalise on the trend for lockdown home renovations, and the need to invest in working from home tech and electronics.

The Small Business Power campaign’s support package includes:

-A series of new seller offers, including reducing fees by 5 per cent, as well as 75 per cent off new listing costs for existing and new business sellers to help them make the most of selling online;

-Coupons and discounts for eBay shoppers to incentivise purchasing from small businesses;

-Investment in training programmes to help sellers make the most of the eBay platform;

-Greater investment in marketing for small business sellers across TV, social, print and online media.

This new package follows a £33 million investment from eBay UK over the last year to help its community of hundreds of thousands of small businesses weather the challenges brought on by Covid-19.

The company said the focus has now turned to how it can help power these new businesses to grow and scale up as the UK unlocks.

Rob Hattrell, head of eBay Europe added: “Business will be paying the price of Covid for years to come, and it’s small businesses that will bear the brunt of this. It is now more important than ever to shop small and shop local - whether that is in-store or online - and to keep supporting and celebrating the power of small businesses.

“Our new support package, as part of our small business power campaign, aims to do just that and we hope the 29 million buyers on our platform will join us in backing Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit.”

Along with eBay UK’s continued investment in small businesses, earlier this year the marketplace committed to absorbing the cost of the Digital Services Tax for its small business sellers.

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