Well I look at it like I do with Doordash/Uber eats. How many times have you seen people complain that they added 15 dollars worth of food to their cart just to get to the checkout and see their order now total 28 dollars due to different fees? Then they just decide to not order at all. I feel like it’ll be the same here. Hopefully I’m wrong bc I sell singles way easier on Mercari than anywhere else.
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I backed out of a purchase real quick when I saw the $400 card I was trying to purchase was closer to $500 at checkout lol
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I decided not to purchase this one too. Two cards on the same day. Never using mercari again. From $63 to $81 with more fees than I can count. What is that like 29% in fees and taxes… disgusting. Well not including shipping actually thats my mistake so not 29% but still. Thats absolutely crazy.
Again, I must be completely missing the point here.
If an item on eBay is 100 USD with 10% fee for the seller and on Mercari the fees are 10% for the buyer the seller just sets the item to 90.91 USD and the total for the buyer will be 100 USD and he’ll also get the same amount in the end, the buyer wasn’t going to pay 100 USD on Mercari he’s not going to pay 100 USD on eBay either.
If the fees are just vague that’s completely different issue, but there must be some sort of fee table, right? What am I missing here?
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This is 12.4% fees, which is pretty much the same as eBay, you would’ve paid taxes and delivery there as well.
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You are subtracting human psychology from the equation. It’s the exact reason why when I search “free shipping meme” you see this
People don’t like to think they are paying for extraneous things beyond the item itself. Nobody wants to know that they have to pay an extra $20 on $60 item in taxes, shipping, fees. It feels wasteful. It feels like if you’re just a bit smarter you can save that $20 even if it’s not true.
It also ties into Loss Aversion because 10% on the seller means you are making a smaller profit but 10% on the buyer means you are losing more money to purchase an item. Meaning buyer carry a heavier psychological burden for the 10% fee hit vs how it would psychologically affect the seller.
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Got it, thanks.
My question then is, if this is so negative psychologically to buyers why are most marketplaces other than eBay adopting it? Vinted, Wallapop, now Mercari, now Tradera (owned by eBay), even PWCC has the buyers premium.
Because that is incorrect. Buyers are more committed the deeper in the checkout process they get before fees become apparent.
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It might work better in an auction setting like PWCC because it’s basically a trick to get people to bid higher and after you win you are sorta locked in on purchasing the item. People hate the BP but as @Tyranids said it’s too late by the time you win.
I’ve never even heard of the other marketplaces you mentioned so I’m not sure they are great examples. Maybe they feel they need more sellers than buyers. But ultimately the buyers are the ones that create valuable for a marketplace.
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They’re the biggest European marketplaces I know.
So if what @Tyranids says is correct, this change to Mercari is a positive thing for sellers then, right?
If you want to see what’s optimal, look no further than how Amazon does it. Put nearly all the fees onto the seller/vendor, including shipping. Then any fees the buyer has to pay like taxes or possibly import fees are hidden until you reach the checkout page.
At least that’s how the incumbent markeplaces generally operate. If you’re trying to break through you may try unconventional things to move a particular needle.
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On Ebay a $63 poke card with the same shipping comes out to $71 at checkout. Mercari it comes out to $81. So not quite the same. And yes the processing fees and service fees are at 12.3% but total at checkout Im paying more than 12.3% is what I was trying to say. Should have clarified that thats my fault.
If the seller is adjusting pricing based on the marketplace and their fee structure, the $63 item on ebay will be priced around $54 on Mercari, to make the take home for the seller and the cost to the buyer about the same.
If all sellers adjusted their current price on Mercari to adapt to the new changes, you wouldnt be paying any more than you were before. The only difference is that you would see the fees as the buyer instead of it being masked/built into the selling price.
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I wonder if these new changes are to discourage sellers from moving sales off the marketplace? As there’s no real incentive to do so anymore from a seller’s perspective (except to try to lock in a sale by helping the buyer).
Thats really optimistic thinking there. Right now theyre simply not adjusting anything from my experience. Maybe others are having different experiences. Im paying more on mercari than ebay. Significantly more actually. Every single one of the 20 sellers I reached out to explaining this to have no interest in changing their prices and are being stingy. Maybe they think Im BSing about the fees. I gave up for now. They didnt even budge a dollar. If its between me buying on ebay for less and me reaching out and trying to convince mercari sellers to adjust their prices Id rather do ebay. Just need some patience I guess. I do hope they do what you said and come together and take some time to change all their listings. Right now thats not the case. From my experience.
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Ah, gotcha. I didn’t realize you had been reaching out to the sellers. I sometimes go on Mercari to search for cards and sell a bit, and I have definitely been lazy about updating my own prices so far (just updated a few yesterday though). But I agree with you that I have barely seen any movement on the prices yet. Very few saved items I have have gotten a notification about lowering prices, so it could very well take a while for sellers to transition. Or maybe they just never will, and everyone will be pushed off Mercari for the same reason you are outlining here. I thought most would understand how the new structure works and would be open to offers at a lower price, but I guess that’s too optimistic, like you said.
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I’m guessing none of those sellers sell on eBay otherwise they would most likely match the price they have on eBay after fees, there’s no logical reason for them not to do it, they’d get the same in the end, maybe even more. I don’t sell on Mercari but I sell on other platforms with the same fee structure, I just adjust the prices accordingly and as a seller I actually redirect people away from eBay to these platforms to complete sales sometimes because it’s worth it for both me and the buyer, and most of the time the buyers will do it because it’s also in their interest.
I’ve had similar experiences on Vinted (same as Mercari) where sellers look up eBay prices and then match those prices without understanding that they have difference fee structures, it’s frustrating but I don’t even bother arguing with them anymore, let them set high prices and not make sales, they’ll eventually adjust when they see everyone else selling except them.
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