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Agentic AI gains momentum: As Amazon, Walmart, eBay and others experiment with AI agents, retailers need to to figure out how to market to bots in addition to humans.

Amazon鈥檚 strategy: While some companies, like Instacart and eBay, were quick to forge partnerships with AI companies, Amazon is taking a more cautious approach. The retailer recently updated its legal policies to specify how agents can interact with its site, barring behavior that copies humans and evading measures like captchas designed to weed out bots.

EBay scores a significant win for online marketplaces: A federal judge ruled the site isn鈥檛 liable for items sold on its platform that violate environmental laws.

Klaran鈥檚 recent major partnerships include DoorDash, Walmart鈥檚 OnePay, and eBay鈥攁ll major opportunities to pump up its volume. Similarly, tie-ins with JPMorgan Payments and Stripe helped Klarna reach more merchants during Q1 2025. Moderating AI enthusiasm: Klarna credited AI with increasing average revenue per employee by 152% and cutting customer service cost per transaction by 40% since Q1 2023.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss why many retailers are choosing now to launch peer-to-peer marketplaces, why consumers might choose IKEA鈥檚 resale platform versus the already established players like Facebook Marketplace and eBay, and what they need to be successful. Listen to the conversation with our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Sarah Marzano.

This article was contributed by eBay Ads.

Beyond a few global players鈥攅.g., Amazon Ads, eBay Advertising, and Zalando Partner Marketing Services鈥攖he market is highly fragmented. There are more than 100 RMNs currently operating across Europe, per Mimbi, a retail media intelligence platform. The following chart lists a small selection of some of the main networks operating in each country.

According to credit card transaction data from Earnest Analytics, discounters Five Below and Ollie鈥檚 Bargain Outlet topped the list of retailers whose customers also shopped at Temu in the past 12 months, followed by eBay and discount chains Dollar Tree and Dollar General. Ecommerce heavyweights: Amazon and Walmart are well positioned to consolidate gains amid tariff upheaval.

A substantial 63.5% of consumers in France shopped on marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress in the past 12 months, per our November 2024 survey with ESW. Prominent fashion-specific players include international giants such as Shein, Zalando, and Asos, alongside French multibrand retailers like La Redoute and Veepee. Shein dominates, largely due to its social media presence.

eBay recently posted ad revenues of $367 million in Q2 2023鈥攁 growth of 35% YoY鈥攊n its latest earnings. But much of that can be tied to innovation in its ad types, improved measurement capabilities, and expanded third-party ads. eBay鈥檚 market also gives it a retail media opportunity outside of consumer packaged goods (CPG). Let鈥檚 break down what eBay is doing right.

57% of US adults have used eBay to purchase secondhand luxury fashion and accessories online in the past year, according to March 2024 data from CivicScience.

The initial wave of excitement over generative AI is fading, leaving many retailers asking, 鈥淣ow what?鈥� Some might want to look toward Shopify, which is incorporating generative AI capabilities across its platform to help sellers build and scale their businesses more quickly. Or maybe take a cue from eBay, which is using the tech to make more accurate and helpful product recommendations. Meanwhile, Etsy is working to democratize access to machine learning models to help speed up deployment across its organization.