Last month, eBay’s top 100 sellers in our high potential global emerging markets, or HiPo, came together for a vibrant two-day celebration in Dubai. The event honored these sellers' tremendous growth as worldwide exporters, strengthening our community of small business owners on the marketplace.
We are also recognizing sellers in Germany, the U.K., Canada, Japan and China —- exceptional entrepreneurs who found a spark of opportunity on eBay and turned it into a thriving business. These sellers are exporters with reach, selling everything from antiques and vintage memorabilia, to manufacturing parts and trading cards.
Meet seven inspiring entrepreneurs who hail from Lithuania, India, Germany, the U.K., Canada, Japan and China, and sell to customers across the globe:
Lithuania
Deimante Sejonaite and Ingrida Messer
Deimante Sejonaite, POPPRI’s Chief Customer Officer (middle, gray dress) and Ingrida Messer, POPPRI’s Head of Buying (right, black and white dress).
The Exporter of the Year award highlights a seller who embodies eBay’s entrepreneurial spirit and has achieved exceptional success in global exporting. This year’s winner for the HiPo region is POPPRI Fashion Auctions, a Lithuania-based fashion retailer that sells refurbished luxury goods.
POPPRI has been selling on eBay for over 15 years, offering a diverse range of refurbished luxury fashion items exclusively via eBay auctions. Their unique sourcing arrangement with vendor Net a Porter allows them to acquire pre-loved items from renowned luxury brands. Then, their dedicated team of 70 skilled employees takes the inventory through a meticulous refurbishment process, revitalizing the items with renewed value and style to fit the high standards of luxury fashion.
POPPRI is committed to producing high-quality items with careful attention to detail. Since launching their eBay store, they’ve connected with over 500,000 fashion enthusiasts and sold 1.8 million items worldwide.
India
Hiral Parikh
Hiral Parikh, owner of gemdepot (middle, pink dress).
Hiral Parikh is the manufacturer and exporter behind gemdepot, a fine jewelry shop based in the Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) in Mumbai, India. She is our 2023 Female Exporter of the Year for the HiPo region. A mass producer of jewelry, Hiral has not only sold her in-house brands but also supplied products to other brands like Zales and Pandora.
Since starting her ecommerce journey with eBay almost 10 years ago, Hiral has been successfully exporting to the United States, with 80% of her total sales coming from online customers. She’s even fulfilled an order for eBay’s own CEO, Jamie Iannone.
Germany
Wolfgang Kolb
Wolfgang Kolb, owner of Kolb Antik Ulm.
Kolb Antik Ulm is one of six small businesses honored in this year’s German Seller Awards, which recognizes top sellers who are successfully using eBay’s marketplace to grow their businesses. An eBay seller since 2000, Wolfgang Kolb is one of the largest collectibles sellers in Europe, specializing in art and antiques.
“I’ve been in this business for forty years, and every day I see something I’ve never seen before,” said Wolfgang. “No matter what we list, though, three or four customers will always know what it is.”
Over the decades, Wolfgang has discovered that the secret to success lies in prioritizing openness and trust. He emphasizes combining traditional retail values with eBay’s global customer base to build strong business relationships with art and antique collectors, dealers and restorers. Thanks to this network, he successfully auctions over 10,000 items on eBay each month.
UK
Vintage Honey Pots
The Vintage Honey Pots team with their eBay category manager, Amy Kent (left).
This year, eBay for Business Award winner vintagehoneypots received the Business Growth Award for reevaluating its ecommerce approach and embracing eBay’s tools and programs — exceeding its total sales for 2022 in the first six months of 2023 alone.
The team behind Vintage Honey Pots had been trading in vintage items, collectibles and ephemera for over two decades before joining eBay in 2016.
Last year, after joining the Pro-Trader program, the eBay side of their business began to grow. After overhauling their listings, optimizing their shop, upgrading their product photography and starting to ship overseas with eBay’s Global Shipping Program, Vintage Honey Pots reached millions of buyers around the world.
“Since enrolling in the Global Shipping Programme (GSP) in April 2023, we've sold items to over 50 different countries on 6 different continents around the world,” said Amy Weaver, ecommerce manager at Vintage Honey Pots. “Not only has this meant that more people have access to our wonderful vintage lots, but in the first month alone, it increased our average lot price by a whopping 18.9%.”
Canada
Amy Ozueh
Amy Ozueh, owner of ACO Repairs & Sales Solutions.
eBay Canada’s Micro-Multinational of the Year Award goes to Amy Ozueh of ACO Repairs & Sales Solutions for using the marketplace to reach customers around the world.
Amy joined eBay in 2018 after working in manufacturing repair for years, when she saw an opportunity to not just repair, but also sell new, used and refurbished parts directly to customers.
Today, over 95% of ACO’s eBay sales are cross-border, with more than 20% going to customers outside both Canada and the United States. Amy attributes much of the business’s success to her industry knowledge, which has allowed her to help buyers find the parts they need and grow ACO into a thriving, global business in an industry traditionally dominated by men.
Japan
Takumi Tsuchihashi
Takumi Tsuchihashi, owner of GLIT (right).
Takumi Tsuchihashi started selling on eBay in 2006, when a friend introduced him to the platform and showed him how easy it is to sell products to customers around the world. He now employs a total of 30 people at GLIT Co., Ltd who share a love for anime and games — selling Japanese cultural products including trading cards, anime goods and video games on eBay.
In 2021, the team began to focus their attention on trading cards and opened a second storefront specializing in authentic Pokemon cards. Their remarkable growth earned them eBay Japan’s 2021 Category Growth Award for Collectible Card Games.
Takumi and his team now share their love for anime with fans from across the globe, with many repeat customers — even those from overseas — stopping by their physical store to say hello and browse more inventory.
China
Zheng Jiaqi
Zheng Jiaqi, owner of T8 Collection Gallery.
Sports trading card seller Zheng Jiaqi began his eBay career when he launched T8 Collection Gallery in August 2022. A lover of trading cards, he was drawn to eBay’s vast trading card platform, which is recognized as a preferred channel for many buyers worldwide.
“Opening a store on eBay is equivalent to a direct connection with card buyers all over the globe,” Jiaqi said. “More and more collectors have shifted from offline stores to online platforms like eBay to find their desired cards. The market for star cards has great potential.”
Within three weeks of launching, T8 Collection Gallery grossed over $60,000 in sales. Since then, Jiaqi has been able to quit his day job and now runs his eBay business full time.
“eBay’s platform attracts star card enthusiasts from around the world,” he said. “I believe the future will be even better!”
Learn more about how eBay supports small businesses here.