A more managed marketplace doesn't mean eBay will become an online retailer like Amazon.com, Donahoe said. "We'll focus where we can win. We're not a retailer. We'll focus on the secondary market," he said. That means its historical sweet spot of used, hard-to-find items, as well as less-unique products that are a notch below the season's new releases, he said. The latter category includes liquidation, out-of-season, excess and off-price inventory.

eBay will also focus on providing a wider variety of shopping "formats," beyond auction items, fixed-priced products and classifieds, for a variety of devices, he said.

Donahoe also said that the eBay marketplace is far from a mature business, since only a small percentage of retail sales happen online.

The changes will take some time to be implemented and to have an effect, so eBay's growth will likely lag the overall e-commerce market this year, he said. By 2011, however, the eBay marketplace will outpace the market's growth, he predicted.

"I'm as impatient as any of you," he said. However, improving trust in the marketplace, fine-tuning its technology platform and increasing seller standards will take time.