Another Competitor Makes Some Big Changes

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

ebay competitor Mercari announced some big changes today. The best summary I've seen is here:

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/mercari-shifts-fees-buyers-returns-any-reason/

Will this impact ebay's strategy going forward, or will it have little or no effect? I don't know, but it will be interesting to see what the next ebay Seller Update contains....

[chevymontecarlo88]

Good post and very interesting indeed.

Shifting the selling fees to the buyer and allowing a 3 day return for any reason?

I can see Ebay following their lead on this. A lot of sellers on Ebay already offer a return policy and i think this would give some relief to the returns they get already. I could be wrong.

[redlinear]

I'm feeling I may just need to do my part in helping them grow.

[pls-consignments]

I hope not. I think this comment says it all: 

"Awesome, a free clothing rental service! Time to start wearing stuff I can't afford for just the cost of shipping!"

[luckythewinner]

Mercari Shifts Fees From Sellers To Buyers

buyers will be charged $0.50 plus 2.9% of the transaction price

PLUS an additional service fee at checkout, expected to be as low as 5%

If sellers do not lower their prices, here's another way to read that headline:

"Mercari will raise the cost of every item on their site by at least  7.9% plus 50 cents"

And do not forget the fee increase that did not make the headlines:

"Sellers will now be paying a $2 fee for each direct deposit withdrawal."

[simba6]

I always avoided auctions where the buyer paid the seller's fees.  As for the any reason returns, eBay already offers that.  Just use the magic words  " not as described "

[mr_lincoln]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 

If anything I hope eBay changes how the No returns accepted setting is used.  Right now it's use is too liberal, not to mention it is the Default setting when you create Templates on the Advanced listing tool (pic below).  

My view is it should be limited to two choices on the eBay Grading Item Specifics as follows:

-Junk value - parks only

-Restoration required

Since eBay has several work arounds to bypass the No returns accepted setting it makes sense to change how it is used.  I don't know how many threads I have read here where Sellers say things like, "But I don't accept returns!  Why is this happening?!?"  With Negative Feedback to follow. 

eBay, Etsy, Amazon, Mercari, Poshmark, etc are all Retail sales venues.  Returns can and will happen so having a No returns accepted choice does nothing but give Sellers (mainly new ones) a false sense of security.  

As to Mercari's 3 day return for any reason policy, well, it might wind up being like eBay's Free 30 day returns where Sellers were afraid that returns would sky rocket as the sky was falling ... well, neither happened so I suspect the same will be true with Mercari ... fear mongers will get all worked up and the sun will still come up the next day like always.

devon@ebay 

kyle@ebay 

Hello Devon and Kyle, this post on the No returns accepted setting you might want to share with those reviewing Mercari's competitive stance on Returns.

[chapeau-noir]

Seems like a shell game to me.

[luckythewinner]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Seems like a shell game to me.

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Not a shell game for the buyer, unless sellers lower their prices.

$10 item: Old Mercari - Buyer pays $10; New Mercari - Buyer pays at least $11.29

= 12.9% price increase

$25 item: Old Mercari - Buyer pays $25; New Mercari - Buyer pays at least $27.48

= 9.9% price increase

$50 item: Old Mercari - Buyer pays $50; New Mercari - Buyer pays at least $54.45

= 8.9% price increase

$100 item: Old Mercari - Buyer pays $100; New Mercari - Buyer pays at least $108.40

= 8.4% price increase 

[valueaddedresource]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

Good post and very interesting indeed.

Shifting the selling fees to the buyer and allowing a 3 day return for any reason?

I can see Ebay following their lead on this. A lot of sellers on Ebay already offer a return policy and i think this would give some relief to the returns they get already. I could be wrong.

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@chevymontecarlo88  eBay has already gotten rid of selling fees for private/non-business sellers in Germany and they are currently testing doing the same in the UK, without shifting or adding any fees for buyers.

With several other signs I've been tracking over the last few months indicated eBay is pivoting back toward a broader consumer-seller inclusive focus, I suspect we may see eBay expand that playbook to other markets and possibly even the US.

By offering no fee selling to only private/non-business sellers, eBay can limit their losses/exposure (I believe in Germany they've said it's only about 20% of sellers) so they may not need to consider shifting fees to buyers, while also maximizing the impact to bring in consumer to consumer (C2C) sellers who are more likely to be buyers, providing that "circular economy flywheel" that was at one time according CEO Jamie Iannone the "foundation of eBay's success."

And of course just like Mercari is incentivizing users to keep money in their balance accounts (by charging a $2 fee to sellers for each direct deposit and waiving payment processing fees for buyers who use their balance to shop), I won't be surprised if we don't see eBay also leveraging the Spendable Funds feature in the same way.

I've said from the beginning when they rolled out Spendable Funds that eBay should turn it into a loyalty rewards program where sellers who use their funds balance to purchase on the site could get discounts or rewards points or something....and now would definitely be a good time for eBay to finally do it.

[tdl_collectibles]

Online auctions & sales getting closer to in-person auctions every day.  Eventually they will all just have both seller and buyer premiums and the house will be the biggest winner.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource 

"I've said from the beginning when they rolled out Spendable Funds that eBay should turn it into a loyalty rewards program where sellers who use their funds balance to purchase on the site could get discounts or rewards points or something....and now would definitely be a good time for eBay to finally do it."

Agree 100%.

[soh.maryl]

Have never used Mercari for either buying or selling.  I always thought it was mainly clothing.  

[valueaddedresource]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

Seems like a shell game to me.

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Not a shell game for the buyer, unless sellers lower their prices.

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This is where I suspect the new return policy may have consequences it does not seem Mercari is considering.

Their US CEO is trumpeting that prices will be lower because sellers won't be paying fees but

A.) As you've indicated, that could be a wash anyway depending on how high the variable buyer fee goes (they say it may be "as low as" 5%, but did not give an upper limit).

and

B.) Some sellers may leave due to the new return policy but those who don't will likely do exactly what they do for eBay and any other marketplace by keeping at least some amount of whatever they had previously baked in for fees added in to handle the time, hassle and various possible expenses involved in dealing with increased returns.

If Mercari is betting on sellers lowering their prices to make this game work...they might be disappointed.

[redlinear]

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@pls-consignments wrote:

I hope not. I think this comment says it all: 

"Awesome, a free clothing rental service! Time to start wearing stuff I can't afford for just the cost of shipping!"

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eBay has 30 day free returns (to any buyer that knows what buttons to push).
Then you get the item returned and don't really know why.  May not be able to re-sell it.

3 days for any reason?  ONLY 3 days?  Heck Yea!!!  (most buyers won't lie about the reason since the reason doesn't matter).