Gross Merchandise Value

You run an online marketplace, CivilWarBang.com, a website where people can buy and sell Civil War-era replica firearms. (You get some interest from people wanting to sell other stuff, mostly movies targeting a very specific niche audience, but for now, you're sticking to guns.)

You don't receive all the revenue from items sold on the site. Third-party merchants sell through you, so they keep most of it. You just receive a taste...either a percentage of the sale or a merchant’s fee, depending on your contract with the seller.

Still, it’s worth knowing how much stuff gets sold through the site as a whole. That way, you can entice other makers of Gettysburg Specials to come list their wares on your site.

Gross Merchandise Value provides that stat. It tracks the total value of all the sales made through your platform. Not the amount you bring in for yourself, but the aggregate amount of all sales.