Mercari changes really show eBays total algorithim manipulation

[ebaiysellslots19]

So well all know that eBay is dead for the most part for small sellers and has been for a while, but the recent Mercari zero fees update REALLY shows just how bad new management of eBay over the last 5 years has absolutely boned sellers into oblivion with their nonsense algorithms. For context I sell vintage clothes and sneakers.

Mercari changed their selling format to zero fees for sellers on sales, and at the same time must really be promoting an algorithm that targets sellers with more than 10 items. For a long time I've been triple posting my listings from eBay to Poshmark, and Mercari:

eBay:
sold most here, but is always slow, sometimes has a burst of orders randomly that seems very manipulated since it never happens around holidays / tax refund season.

Poshmark: 
just about as slow as eBay and minority sale of shares, but often the things I sell there are listings that never sell on eBay, no discernible pattern to when sales happen or not 

Mercari: 
for a long time sold the least of any sites, but when I did it was almost always for item at higher price with no haggling or offers even made

Fast forward 6 ish years with Mercari's latest update - I've sold about 10 items within a span of two weeks, nearly immediately after they rolled out the zero fee policy, offers and straight buys left and right. What a breath of fresh air, eBay is STALE STALE STALE. Just goes to show how much eBay does NOT push your listings to your target demographic and instead inundates them with Amazon-esque nonsense (because obviously eBay really really wants the Amazon money for the last decade).  eBay obviously manipulates their algorithm and does it very poorly at that.  

Additionally, where as Mercari completely revamped to zero fees, Poshmark and eBay have done the opposite raising their fees higher and higher. 

So, I doubt eBay management will take notice, and instead repeat the insanity they have always done as if that will finally lead to success. Either learn something from Mercari's model or just die already. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Ebay is losing mass market sales to Amazon. The OP sells mass market clothing. Whether Mercari is raiding Amazon or Ebay, which knows it has an is issue with this, is not clear.

I do not care. As a seller of media and collectibles I see no reason to try Mercari. Ebay is now stronger than Amazon in media and collectibles. And anyone who thinks that the current downturn in sales is other than the effect of current events and an excess of Ebay sellers is welcome to continue to sell items which are seeing a drop in demand.

[mam98031]

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@catjewels9876 wrote:

Is it true there is a $2 to $3 charge for payouts to sellers?

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@catjewels9876 

It is a $2 charge for a Instant payout.  There are other options.

[mam98031]

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@ebaiysellslots19 wrote:

Entire point is that these corporations adjust their algorithims willy nilly. Absolutely, perhaps in six months Mercari retools their algos as all Silicon Valley companies try to fix what isn't broken and nobody will care about Mercari anymore. Perhaps eBay will one day after twenty years improve (LOL), could happen.

I'm not here to shill Mercari or jump and shout about how "green the grass is" on the other side - but I will point out how scorched and dead the grass is here on the eBay side of the fence. We could have it MUCH better with different management leadership that actually innovates. 

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It may be all that for you, but it isn't for others.  I'm sorry Ebay isn't working well for you, for others it is fine.  And for some it is great.

No one knows if Mercari's dramatic move is a good one or not yet and won't know for months.  It is simply way too soon.

Yes absolutely corporations make changes, add stuff, delete stuff, etc. in an effort to stay current, viable and drive sales.  That is EXACTLY what they are suppose to do.  If Ebay were the same site, same rules as it was 20-30 years ago, Ebay would not exist today.  Way too much has changed in the market over the years.  Ebay simply would not be here.

[reallynicestamps]

So Mercari dropped seller fees in favour of charging buyers fees to purchase on the site, and sales went up?

goodness

[mam98031]

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@ebaiysellslots19 wrote:

Well "all" would really include the tens of thousands of sellers that left eBay not in this thread at the moment lol, you forget to compare the utilization of this site in 2024 compared to 2014 and act as if it's been static for over a decade. It clearly hasn't, just read the forums more frequently if you really are that clueless to the decline of quality here. 

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While many sellers have left Ebay over the years, a whole lot of new ones have joined.  A lack of sellers is NOT a problem Ebay has.  There are almost 19 million of us worldwide.

[mam98031]

@tobaccocardyahoo 

I know many sellers here often compare Ebay to Amazon but they are really two completely different sites.  There are many things that can be sold on Ebay that can't be sold on Amazon.  For those that think Ebay's rules are strict, Amazon is worse.

Ebay doesn't compete with it's sellers, but Amazon clearly does.  There are more differences between the site than there are similar things IMHO.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@mam98031 wrote:

@tobaccocardyahoo 

I know many sellers here often compare Ebay to Amazon but they are really two completely different sites.  There are many things that can be sold on Ebay that can't be sold on Amazon.  For those that think Ebay's rules are strict, Amazon is worse.

Ebay doesn't compete with it's sellers, but Amazon clearly does.  There are more differences between the site than there are similar things IMHO.

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@mam98031 

Absolutely, but Amazon is the ecommerce leader and cannot be ignored.

And although the overlap between the sites is smaller every year, Ebay sellers seem to think that they can compete with Amazon and Amazon sellers where there has been overlap.

Ebay management is clearly working to grow the areas of Ebay's strengths but posters on this forum, commonly complain about the lack of advertising in the areas where Ebay is too weak, and the buyer friendly initiatives which are needed to grow, and avoid negative PR.

[mam98031]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

So Mercari dropped seller fees in favour of charging buyers fees to purchase on the site, and sales went up?

goodness

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Where did you see that sales went up?  What I've read is this is not being very well received by buyers.

[epowerbargains]

There is a $2 for each payout a seller makes. 

[mam98031]

Sure they can.  It isn't helpful to compare apples and oranges.  

Ebay stopped comparing themselves to Amazon years ago, but sellers continue to do it for some reason.  

I have sold on Ebay and Amazon for years.  I do NOT "compete" with myself.  I sell the same stuff here and there.  I can sell my items for less money on Ebay but I must charge more on Amazon in order to survive the fees and their unforgiving rules.

Often times members think because they are not seeing TV ads that Ebay isn't advertising.  Now days, TV ads are not likely the most cost effective way to advertise.

But there are likely many ideas that may help Ebay grow and thrive that haven't been tried yet.  We will always have different opinions on what that might be no matter what Ebay does or doesn't do.

[mam98031]

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@epowerbargains wrote:

There is a $2 for each payout a seller makes. 

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@epowerbargains  and @catjewels9876 

I went to the Mercari site and looked this up.  I was incorrect in my previous post.  This is from the Mercari site.

Fees on Mercari

Listing an item is always free on Mercari. Fees are charged when an item sells or when a service is used. The following charts explain fees on Mercari.

Service Fee

We work hard to make our marketplace a vibrant and secure shopping experience, learn more. Starting March 27, 2024, when you make a purchase, a service fee will be charged. The amount of the fee will be displayed as part of the final price of your item on the checkout page. This fee is charged to the buyer and may not be refunded, depending on the reason for a return.

Seller Fees

Effective March 27, 2024 at 8:30 AM ET, the selling fee for new listings will be 0%

Note: Listings created before 8:30 AM ET on March 27, 2024 will be subject to a selling fee of 10% of the item price when a sale is completed unless the listing has been updated on or after March 27, 2024.

Transaction and Payment Fees

Mercari incurs fees related to payment processing and balance withdraws out of our system by our financial services partners. Some of these service fees are charged to our users.

Payment Processing:
Effective March 27, 2024 at 8:30 AM ET, Mercari will charge buyers a payment processing fee at the time of purchase.

• Effective March 27, 2024
  2.9% + $0.50 fee
  Listings Created before March 27, 2024
  A Payment Processing Fee of 2.9% plus $0.50 per sale is charged to the seller based on the completed sale plus shipping price of the item unless it has been updated after March 27, 2024. The payment processing fee is only charged on completed transactions.
  This fee is not applied to declined or expired offers or canceled orders.
• Effective March 27, 2024
  2.9% + $0.50 fee
  Listings Created After 8:30 AM ET on March 27, 2024
  A Payment Processing Fee of $0.50 plus 2.9% of the transaction price (which includes the item price, shipping, service fee and sales tax) will be charged to the buyer.
  This fee may not be refunded for returned or canceled orders.
• $2 fee
  For each completed Direct Deposit to your bank account.
• $3 fee
  For each completed Instant Pay transfer.

Balance Withdrawals:
There are two ways to cash out your earnings from your Mercari balance offered by Mercari.

Direct Deposit:
Effective March 27, 2024 at 8:30 AM ET, there is a $2 non-refundable fee per cash-out.

Once you’ve added your checking account and have a balance, you can request a cash-out request to your bank using direct deposit. This transaction is typically processed within 5 business days depending on your bank’s processing times. There is $2 non-refundable fee for each completed direct deposit request.

Instant Pay:
Instant Pay is the fastest way to get paid when you need that extra cash. To do this, go to your balance, tap “Instant Pay,” complete your ID validation (if you haven’t already), and add a debit card. You can use Instant Pay for up to $600 per month, once per day on eligible debit cards. There is a $3 flat fee per cash-out. In some cases, depending on your bank’s processing time, it can take up to 30 minutes to see the balance in your bank account.

https://www.mercari.com/us/help_center/article/169/

[sapphire_studio]

The March 27th change not only shifted the fees to the buyers, it also charges you $2 to withdraw your funds the slow method and $3 for the instant pay. There's no free way to get your money. They waive the payment processing fee for buyers who use their funds to purchase so they are trying to encourage people to leave their money on the platform and basically be a mercari bank.

The payment processing fee for buyers is 2.9% but the service fee can be anywhere between slightly less than that (I had one sale where the service fee was less than the payment processing fee) to close to 20%. People will use different accounts and have different fees based on the account they are using for the exact same item. I will also sell the exact same item the same day to two different people and they will pay different fees. It's kind of like Russian Roulette to know what service fees you're going to get as a buyer. Some people wonder if it's higher on weekends and drops as an item ages on the platform.

I have seen a increase in sales on mercari since the change and that might just be from all the attention they are getting. I did lower my prices by 10% on everything. But I was having to pay 13% before that so overall I'm making more money and more sales than before (eBay is still my work horse but I have 700 listings on eBay and only 50 or so on Mercari).

[mam98031]

@sapphire_studio 

Yes thank you, I am aware.  Mercari's total buying fees for purchasing an item on the site is so similar to Ebay's fees for most categories.  Mercari is 10% FVF and 2.9% money processing fee plus a fixed per transaction fee of 50 cents.  So that is a total of 12.9% plus the 50 cent fixed fee.

Ebay in most categories is 13.25% and a 40 cent per transaction fee.

I have no idea how this will turn out for Mercari overall.  3 weeks is no where near enough time to get a good feel for what is happening on the site.

[sapphire_studio]

I have no idea why those rules say 10%. Like I said they fluctuate quite a lot and many people have posted the different service fees on Reddit. Here are two different service fees for the same item that someone bought from me. One person just bought from me yesterday.

 

 

Here is the first item on my homepage that I just added to my cart just now to see what service fee it would charge me:

 

So these examples are definitely less than 10%, but like I said people will show other examples that are closer to 20%.

[mam98031]

I did read somewhere that the Service Fee fluctuates.  I just can't seem to find it again.  I found the following information on the subject.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Mercari/comments/1c5tmxn/the_service_fee_will_change_on_an_item_almost/

https://www.modernretail.co/technology/im-not-freaking-macys-sellers-react-to-mercaris-new-return-po...

And there is likely many other sources.