Deep Dives

eBay is a generalistic marketplace, active and relevant in every category – but it is a true giant for car parts: Currently, around 700 million vehicle parts are available on eBay globally. According to the company, eBay is the number one platform for automotive parts and accessories in both the UK and Germany. And eBay is continuing to push the marketplace model further: for the past nine months, eBay has been offering a combined parts-and-installation service in collaboration with repareo. With the “Best Practice: Car Parts and Workshop Service on eBay” We took a closer look at the concept – and encountered true platform spirit. Blueprint: Tire Service eBay is an essential player in the German car parts trade: one vehicle part is sold every second, and one tire every 19 seconds via the platform. These impressive figures were presented by Christian Wenzel, CEO of car parts seller and e-commerce service provider ecanis, at the Marketplace Convention in Cologne last October. Just one example: 10,000 liters of motor oil are sold daily through eBay. So, it was only logical for eBay to expand into adjacent services – not least to make the offering even more attractive. It all started back in 2017 with a tire installation service, which can be booked at the same time as purchasing tires on eBay. The service is available in Germany, the UK, and the USA. Tires were a logical starting point: installation is fairly standardized across vehicles, making the process easy to scale. Car Parts & Workshop Service on eBay Five years later, an internal eBay survey revealed high demand for expanded offerings: high repair costs, lack of trust in garages, and a growing desire for online appointment scheduling were cited by 79% of respondents as reasons to offer more comprehensive service options. eBay responded: in September 2024, the new workshop service launched in Germany. It includes: Partnership with repareo The service is powered by repareo, a booking platform with thousands of affiliated garages across Germany. Repareo handles the technical onboarding of new workshops and manages the appointment system. eBay, in turn, provides access to parts, manages the purchase process and payment. Customers pay a fixed price upfront, ensuring full cost transparency. Currently, 30 different services are available – from battery and oil changes to timing belt replacements. With this service, eBay is delivering on a true platform strategy by bringing together different user groups: parts sellers, workshops, and drivers. It’s a classic win-win-win: And eBay? The platform benefits from increased user and seller activity. Thanks to repareo, eBay’s own operational burden remains low – the partner handles everything from workshop integration to quality assurance. If a workshop fails to meet the required standards, it can be removed from the program. In return, eBay ensures seller quality: to participate, sellers must: Sales Boom on the Horizon? This model could become even more lucrative for sellers. If the EU proceeds with its plan to require annual vehicle inspections (instead of every two years) for older vehicles, demand for relevant parts and services could spike. According to Mark Steier of Wortfilter.de, this would affect nearly 22 million vehicles in Germany – almost half the current fleet. He sees eBay, as the leading platform for car parts, at the epicenter of this demand boom. His advice for sellers: The combination with eBay’s workshop service can further boost revenues. Conclusion At present, the combined car parts and workshop service is only available in Germany. Despite its success, eBay currently has no plans to expand it to other countries. Similarly, additional service models for other product categories are not on the roadmap – at least for now. Why? Because creating a true win-win-win scenario like this requires the right use case – and most importantly, the right cooperation partner as the best practice: car parts and workshop service on eBay together with repareo shows. There’s still plenty of room for innovation.