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You’ve probably heard of Mercari either online or through a friend. Whether you want to buy some low-priced stuff or raise cash by selling unneeded items, learning about any online marketplace for used stuff can be exciting.
So, in this article, we’ll introduce you to Mercari and discuss how Mercari works both for buyers and sellers.
What Is Mercari?
Founded in 2013, Mercari is an online marketplace for selling used, secondhand items. Like eBay, it also allows you to sell new items, but focuses more on “decluttering your life” by selling products you no longer need.
Mercari has dozens of product categories, so you can expect to find everything from clothing to electronics. The variety of products and lower commission rates set it apart from other platforms like Poshmark.
Moreover, you can negotiate with the sellers and get a good bargain. Currently, Mercari has over 20 million monthly active users, according to the company. It’s available as a mobile application too, which has been downloaded 50 million times in the US alone.
With several people buying and selling through it, Mercari is surely a legit app. But, like any other marketplace, it does have scammers.
How Does Mercari Work for Buyers?
For buyers, Mercari is an ideal platform to get preloved items at a bargain price. With thousands of listings available in various categories, there’s a lot to explore. Let’s see in detail how Mercari works for buyers.
What Can You Find On Mercari?
Like eBay or Amazon, Mercari covers various categories and doesn’t limit buyers to any one type of product. This means that you can find:
- Clothing, accessories, Beauty items, and footwear
- Electronics
- Handmade, vintage, and collectible items
- Sports, garden, and outdoor products
- Tools and arts and crafts items
- Home and office items
In short, Mercari has everything from bags, shoes, and jewelry to furniture, guitars, and drills. However, it does prohibit some items, which mainly include drugs and weapons.
On its website, you can directly search for the items you need or browse through various categories. It has categories for different brands too, which is great if you have a preference for any brand.
Payment Options When Shopping With Mercari
Sellers set the product price for each item. If the price seems reasonable, you can buy it instantly. Alternatively, you can make an offer and try to negotiate a better deal. Mercari also runs promotions, discounts, and coupons, so keep an eye on them.
It accepts various payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay. If you’ve any credit or balance available in your Mercari account, you can use it to pay for products. Thanks to its partnership with Zip, you can avail split the total payment into four installments to be paid in six weeks.
The seller sets the delivery fees. Although we’ll discuss in detail how shipping works on Mercari below, the orders are shipped within three days and take three to four days more to arrive.
Buyer Protection
Despite being a perfectly legit site, Mercari is not free of scams. The platform has various buyer protection measures in place to ensure that you won’t fall prey to scams. Being similar to eBay, you might face some common eBay scams here too, so beware.
Mercari holds the seller’s payment until you rate them after receiving the product (for a maximum of three days). You can get a full refund within three days of receiving (and before rating the seller) any item if it’s damaged, not as described, or incorrect/missing.
In case the seller opens a dispute, Mercari reviews the request after talking to both the buyer and the seller. Mercari shows the details and reviews of sellers, along with the badges, which helps you gauge their credibility.
How Does Selling on Mercari Work?
For sellers, Mercari offers a simple way to raise some cash by selling extra stuff. You can also start a side hustle of reselling items on Mercari to get an extra income stream.
Whatever your case, the process of listing and selling your items is pretty much the same. So let’s briefly discuss how Mercari works for sellers.
Finding Products
The first step is to find products that you want to sell. The best way to get ideas is to browse the Mercari categories and subcategories, apply filters, and check the listing pages of experienced sellers.
This can provide you some fresh ideas and give an understanding of the popular items sold here. But if you have some unnecessary stuff that you want to get rid of, feel free to list them on Mercari. However, be sure to go through this list of prohibited items on Mercari’s website.
Creating a Listing on Mercari
Once you’ve figured out what to sell on Mercari, it’s time to sign up and list the items. It’s a good idea to take a few pictures beforehand, keeping in mind the photography tips for selling products online.
While listing your item, you’ll have to add the details of your product, write a brief description, and add a title. Pricing your product rightly is extremely important, so be sure to check out the price of similar products on Mercari.
However, the condition of used items varies drastically, so don’t hesitate to charge what you believe is justified. In case you’re still not sure, you can use the Smart Pricing feature. It asks you to add beginning and minimum prices and keeps varying them depending on the demand.
Getting Paid
Mercari offers two methods for withdrawing your money: Instant Pay and direct deposit. Instant Pay transfers the cash to your debit card almost instantly for a $2 fee.
On the other hand, a direct bank deposit can take up to five days. If the payout amount is $10 or more, direct transfers are free.
Commissions and Seller Protection
A low commission rate is one of the factors that makes Mercari a popular choice among sellers. Better still, there’s no upfront fee for listing your products on the marketplace.
Mercari charges a 10% commission on the total order amount. It also deducts $2.9% plus $0.30 for processing payments additionally. So, the effective fee is 12.9% plus the extra $0.30.
Moreover, you’ll have to pay a withdrawal fee of $2 if you use Instant Pay or if your direct deposit amount is less than $10. Besides this, if you offer free shipping to buyers, the shipping fee will be deducted from your account.
To safeguard sellers’ interest, Mercari offers up to $200 protection on items lost or damaged during shipment (except for the ones that are shipped by you). Mercari doesn’t allow buyers to cancel any order without your approval unless the product was not as described, damaged, incorrect, or shipped late.
How Does Shipping Work on Mercari?
Let’s see how shipping works for both buyers and sellers on Mercari
For Buyers
For buyers, shipping can be free or paid, depending on the seller’s decision. Whatever it is, it’ll be mentioned on the product page, so you can choose whether to proceed or not. You can use the Free Shipping filter as well.
The parcel should arrive within seven days. Mercari has partnered up with FedEx, UPS, and USPS to provide timely deliveries.
For Sellers
To ship their products, sellers can use the Mercari prepaid labels or ship themselves. Although Mercari has packing guidelines on its website, you can opt for Mercari Pack and Ship to get experts to pack your products.
If you use Mercari prepaid labels, it emails you the label as soon as the order is placed. Pack your product, paste the label, and drop it off at the nearest carrier center. Remember, Mercari asks you to ship products within three days.
With Mercari, you can either pay for the shipping yourself or charge the buyer. On its Fees page, you can check out the shipping costs for different carriers.
Mercari Local
Besides this, Mercari also has a delivery option called Mercari Local. Thanks to this, you can explore and buy items near you. This works well for items too big or fragile to be shipped.
Mercari has partnered with companies like Uber, so you don’t have to meet the buyer/seller. The fee for local delivery is $10.99 for all categories (except furniture) to be paid by the buyer. Currently, Mercari Local is available in select areas only.
Buy and Sell Used Items Hassle-Free
Things that you no longer need can be extremely useful to someone else. And selling them can be beneficial for both of you.
Luckily, Mercari provides a hassle-free way of buying and selling secondhand items. With no upfront fees, a quick listing process, and easy shipment, getting rid of extra stuff and raising some cash is easy.
For buyers, too, it provides a great way to shop for low-priced used goods in good condition. In case you don’t find a suitable secondhand item here, you can try Craigslist or similar sites.
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