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....

[oldwestgold]

Ouch! I just tried buying a $125 item on Mercari that I had been looking at and the two additional fees that came up at checkout amounted to over $15! The shopping cart reminded me of buying an airline ticket with all the added fees. The funny thing though, the listing had been up for weeks and should have been under the old seller fee structure with no buyer fees as their announcement stated, unless I read that wrong. So that amounts to 12% in buyer fees on this one. I hurried and dumped my cart. No way.

[dbfolks166mt]

@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."

     Could not agree more. Spendable fund balances is a potential high revenue source for eBay that they have failed to incentivize sellers to utilize since it has little benefit to a seller. First there are certain categories you cannot use the funds to purchase items with and second the seller receives no interest on the funds sitting in the pot. The seller/buyer is better off using a cash back credit card to make the purchase with. 

     Meanwhile eBay is earning interest on those funds and when a seller uses those funds to purchase something eBay is paying nobody any merchant or transaction fees. 

[dbfolks166mt]

Most industry auction houses charge a buyer's fee and none to very little to the seller. I bid on many other auction forums and always pay a buyer's premium. 

I would also agree that the length of time allowed for a return must be shortened. 30 days is far too long. even 15 days is a long period for someone to make up their mind on returning an item or not. What I have been finding lately is that people will wait until the last day and then file a return. I believe people get an unexpected bill or forget that they had their credit card coming due then file a return stating "changed mind". On top of that, eBay always allows the buyer too much time to return the item. Buyers should have the same amount of time to return it as the seller had to ship it. 

     For every action there is an equal.............  If buyers only have 3 days to return you may see a large increase in chargebacks, more than what it is already increasing. 

[oldwestgold]

The return length needs to be shortened. 30 days is way too long, and I believe most sellers would agree. Three business days to get to the Post Office or have the mailman pick it up is not out of the question. Make it 7 calendar days then. It takes a minute to file for a pickup online. People will always do chargebacks which is not a problem for me. Buyers would simply need to be trained to be less lazy and get with the program if they want to buy off eBay. I buy a ton off eBay and ship back any returns within 2 days now. It's not rocket science, just human conditioning. I block most buyers after a return now if it is close to being 30 days or a remorse return. I don't need the hassle. eBay will never change its 30-day return policy in either event. So it is just a dream to post about it.

[broto_64]

Please I hope not, this doesn't solve anything, it's more daylight savings time garbage than anything else.

Eliminating seller fees on ebay while passing that onto the buyers would result in a huge upset where either sellers would have to almost instantly lower all the prices of everything listed, or buyers would see immediate ~15% or so inflation of everything listed.

It's silly, just passes the fees from one side to the other but ultimately every seller who is in it for the profit will pass the cost on to the buyers, so either way the buyer pays the fees, they've been paying the fees all along assuming the sellers were savvy.

[broto_64]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

You still have to consider the effect of the HIGH price these buyers end up paying with the fees shifted to them AND if you can list the item price wise to be competitive.

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A $10 item +$5 fees = $15, perhaps some folks are missing the fact that the buyer pays the fees one way or the other.

[broto_64]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

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@yuzuha wrote:

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@redlinear wrote:

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3 days is plenty.  You get the item, check it out,  Like it or Return it.

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I am not a crypto currency guy at all and wonder if sales paid by Bitcoin would eliminate bank disputes? Can you dispute a payment via Bitcoin?

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You can't just pay with bitcoin like it's cash, so unfortunately a payment venue gets involved (just like with credit cards) and once a payment venue comes into play so does payment dispute because without dispute resolution there would be no consumers willing to use that payment venue.

Whether the actual dispute outcome would be paid out in BTC vs USD, hard to say, up to the payment venue... I mean if I buy BTC I pay with USD, it goes through as a bank transaction, money is moved electronically from one financial institution to another just like any other bank-to-bank transfer.

Hope that made sense.

[antflan77]

       Haha, I always ship the same day or next day at the latest, so that would be unfair to only give them a day, but I agree that the return window was WAY TOO LONG. When I would sell a video camera, why would they have 14 days to ship it back AFTER they had 14 days (my offer) to decide to return it? 

[vintagecraze50]

EXACTLY! BUT adding this extra “service fee” I think is going to SCARE THE PANTS off of them and abandon cart ship immediately. The BIGGEST point IS, you have to list this stuff at an appealing price compared to competition no matter who pays what. It is a stupid idea.

[bennotbill]

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@oldwestgold wrote:

The return length needs to be shortened. 30 days is way too long, and I believe most sellers would agree.

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Especially for items that arrive "broken". Like INAD's opened after three weeks for "screen was broken on my iPhone" for example.

Buyers should only have or need a couple of days to claim for something like that. Otherwise it's clear the buyer is using the 30 day MBG as some sort of breakage insurance.

[vintagecraze50]

Yes, we block serial returner we give them 2 chances then they are blocked. Waste of money on these people with shipping charges both ways.

[dhbookds]

There were a number of studies done about returns and the results were that giving a longer return time actually resulted in less returns.......speculation was that people put off doing it/forgot, etc. 

[farmalljr]

How the platform will now work:

Buyers pay NON REFUNDABLE fees. If they make a return, Mercari will keep the fees for the privilege of returns.  Sellers will lose the funds as soon as the buyer returns. Upon return, it's not clear what happens if you get a brick, damaged item, or whatever.  There is only an "appeal" you can file with Mercari. Nothing stated if the platform refunds you or you just eat the loss. 

All that seems apparent is that Mercari gets paid, the buyer get the money back minus fees. It also appears right off the bat many sellers AND buyers are being charged all the fees. 

I think this will end up ruining the platform. I don't think buyers will be OK paying fees and not getting them returned on a refund. 

[broto_64]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

EXACTLY! BUT adding this extra “service fee” I think is going to SCARE THE PANTS off of them and abandon cart ship immediately. The BIGGEST point IS, you have to list this stuff at an appealing price compared to competition no matter who pays what. It is a stupid idea.

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Oh yes, the psychological impact, I agree... Looking at it as a buyer I also hate seeing a good deal just to find that they added some huge amount at checkout. Window closed, out of there, not going back to that place.

[redlinear]

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@yuzuha wrote:

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@redlinear wrote:

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Buyers NEED some reason, some incentive...to slow down before buying.  Removing ALL of the consequences has created buyers that don't pay attention. 

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I haven't encountered that at all. Out of nearly 1700 sales, I've had exactly two returns. One was a buyer's remorse return where the buyer admitted they'd just changed their mind and paid to ship it back on their own dime. The other was an item that was genuinely defective.

I was hesitant when I changed my own listings to 30-day returns at first because I was worried that buyers were going to use that as an excuse to return anything for any reason, but that didn't happen.

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Has a lot to do with what you list I assume. (don't try car parts).
eBay has this "guaranteed fit" on car parts.  IF the buyer AND the seller take certain steps AND the search results in a Green Checkmark.   
LOTS of things can go wrong.  But mostly (it doesn't fit) because of buyers not paying attention to the steps that they must take prior to searching.  And More-so, they don't take other "simple" steps to be sure the part they order is like the part they need.
Doesn't fit and doesn't work are the most common.  I'm WAY below my peers in the return category. However, I notice a sharp increase in returns over the last few years.   I can't imagine what my "peers" are going through. Ouch

Every time I see "it doesn't fit", I want to ask why Part Number ABT456 doesn't fit?  part number is all over the place in the listing and it's clearly cast into the part itself.   
The truthful answer would be: Got in a hurry, needed an alternator for a Chevy, thought all Chevy alternators were the same.  
That's just part of selling car parts.  Even local, we have to slow customers down and PRY information out of them.