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....

[sapphire_studio]

They definitely don't see the fees on the listing. Also the service fees are not consistent I've seen them anywhere between 5 and 10% (plus the 2.9% payment processing fee). You only see the fees on the very last page before you confirm the purchase. Buyers psychologically feel tricked I'm sure.

[oldwestgold]

It would be 3 days AFTER receipt of the item.

[oldwestgold]

I am not sure where you are selling, but not where I buy and sell at large auction houses. Some will not charge anything to the seller just to have the opportunity to sell and collect a buyer fee.

[ed8108]

---

@tdl_collectibles wrote:

 Eventually they will all just have both seller and buyer premiums and the house will be the biggest winner.

---

A new potential future income stream, both seller & buyer paying dollars into ebay

( a ebay buyer service charge)

[vintagecraze50]

That has to be the stupidest move they could make at this point IMO. Prices are already too high already. They would price themselves off the planet. Great way to kill the website for all time.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@yuzuha wrote:

---

@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

---

It should be a choice in my opinion. If you want to make sure you are covered by a longer return, make sure you buy at a storefront that offers that or an online seller with longer returns. Personally i think returns should be up to the seller but with bank disputes and with buyers finding ways to exploit the system, it is difficult to enforce  3 day returns.  (Of course i am not talking about defective or misleading sales) It may help reduce some of the buyers remorse and free rentals that may occur within a 30 day return.

---

I disagree. I think 30-day returns should be the rule for ALL online sales sites because the buyer is buying sight unseen and can't see/hold/touch the item for themselves before they make the purchase. They are relying entirely on the seller's representation of the item they are buying.

---

I can appreciate your point of view but would not mandate all sellers to offer a 30 day return.

I am not opposed to any specific return period (should be up to seller) but this (30 day return rule) would hurt more smaller sellers than larger sellers. IMHO.

If the sellers are not representing the item sold accurately, buyers always have the INAD route.

It is nice to have the piece of mind of a return policy but if there is no return policy, price should reflect that difference. IMHO

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@redlinear wrote:

---

@yuzuha wrote:

---

@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

---

It should be a choice in my opinion. If you want to make sure you are covered by a longer return, make sure you buy at a storefront that offers that or an online seller with longer returns. Personally i think returns should be up to the seller but with bank disputes and with buyers finding ways to exploit the system, it is difficult to enforce  3 day returns.  (Of course i am not talking about defective or misleading sales) It may help reduce some of the buyers remorse and free rentals that may occur within a 30 day return.

---

I disagree. I think 30-day returns should be the rule for ALL online sales sites because the buyer is buying sight unseen and can't see/hold/touch the item for themselves before they make the purchase. They are relying entirely on the seller's representation of the item they are buying.

---

I don't mind a 30 day return.
I do mind a 30 day return when I'm paying shipping both ways.
Buyers NEED some reason, some incentive...to slow down before buying.  Removing ALL of the consequences has created buyers that don't pay attention. 

---

Many buyers have been conditioned to return policies and i don't have an issue with any seller offering them. It is an added value to their brand/store or item they are selling.

If sellers had the choice to offer No Returns and Restocking fees, i would not be opposed to that as well.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@jb-408 wrote:

Ebay is worldwide but fees are killing me.

Mercari Facebook market place and offerup makes me more money 💰 

---

Totally understand. Everybody needs to find what works best for them.

Each platforms have their advantages and disadvantages. Some have to be more competitive because they may not have the draw or infrastructure.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@broto_64 wrote:

---

@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

---

@yuzuha wrote:

---

@redlinear wrote:

---

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

---

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?

---

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.

---

Yes that does make sense. I thought the idea of Cyrpto was you could trade it from user to user without any transaction fees or banks involved. The downside was that it was gone (not retrievable)  once sent. 

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@vintagecraze50  "That has to be the stupidest move they could make at this point IMO. Prices are already too high already. They would price themselves off the planet. Great way to kill the website for all time."

I doubt ebay will do what @ed8108 is suggesting. 

I also doubt that what Mercari is doing is going to kill Mercari. The roll out was poorly executed to say the least, and even if it had been rolled out better, there was going to be unhappiness in the Mercari community. I think we'll have a much better idea of how this works in a few months...right now, it's much too soon to judge. As usual, the angry voices are getting the most attention, but.....it will take a while to actually find out whether buyers will really run away, or will they decide the return policy adds a level of trust previously missing from the site, and will they also realize the total they pay might not be much different from the total they would be paying if the seller was paying fees and folding those costs into item prices. 

Many sellers are most upset about the new return policy, but experienced ebay sellers already deal with remorse returns. And the $2.00 fee to access money is a pain, but can probably be dealt with by many sellers. And, here's the thing I suspect Mercari is betting on. They may lose some existing Mercari sellers, but sellers on other platforms, like ebay and Poshmark, might very well conclude:

With a number of cross listing platforms available, well, why not? Pretty easy to cross list from here to there, and at really no great risk... sellers can price competitively (with no fees), which could indeed bring more buyers (even with the buyer fees). AND these same sellers would have an incentive to use social media to push their Mercari (no fee) sales rather than their Poshmark sales (20%, I think)....

So, just my opinion, but I think this is worth watching. I don't think other sites need to worry just yet, but I also think they shouldn't just dismiss this...Yes, there's risk, and it could fail and Mercari might have to walk it back.

But , just making numbers up, if I am on platform A and on mercari, and I sell 1,000 on A with say total fees or 20%, I'm left with $800.00 (not factoring in other expenses). Let's say I also sell $1000 on Mercari...basically, that means that  combining those sales reduces my total fee percentage to 10%, rather than 20%. And even if I only sell $200 on Mercari, that means Mercari effectively replaces the fees I paid to Platform A.

So, I'm thinking as things calm down, we're likely to see more sellers give Mercari a try, and the real issue will be will the buyers adapt or not. And they just might.

[chapeau-noir]

Mercari attracts kind of the cheapest of the cheap - those buyers are not gonna want to PAY for the privilege of shopping there - that's the problem I see with this.

But I guess time will tell.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@chapeau-noir  Well, one reason I would counsel patience to existing Mercari sellers is, such statements (mercari attracts the cheapest of the cheap) are generalizations which are made about every site: All ebay sellers are crooks, all ebay buyers are crooks, etc, etc. 

While the roll out doesn't inspire confidence in management, it is at least possible that management did some testing before releasing this, and also reviewed their internal buying data to see just what percentage of items were actually sold for considerably less than the asking price, etc.

As I said in another post here, economists have been surprised by the fact that, despite all the complaining in the US about inflation, many Americans continued to spend on items with highly inflated prices (and not just necessities). The fact is, many Americans are used to "see it, click it, buy it" and instant gratification can easily trump sensible budgeting. That Americans have continued to spend at inflated prices is one reason inflation has continued, and it really defied expectations. It is possible that the same will apply with Mercari (they are only doing this in the US): buyers will complain, some buyers might even leave, but....will they defy seller expectations (such as yours) and continue to buy, even as they grumble?

Maybe. 

Maybe not.

As you say, time will tell. If I were a Mercari seller, I would be willing to give this some time before shutting down. 

[quicksilverdiecast]

It takes a lot of hard work to do so also,,,there are ways to dodge both ebay and fb roadblocks, if one is savy you can drop links in that bring the buyers right to your listing. As far as selling on fb that is a huge risk and it is full of scammers using others pictures as what they are selling and want you to use pp F&F etc so there is no recourse once they have your money......

[quicksilverdiecast]

The return window on any site or even brick and mortar stores does not apply if the buyer uses a credit card, in the credit card agreement they all sign gives the credit card user the right to return any item to a 6 month window...even if a brick store declares no return on electrical parts etc...if using a credit card they will claw back the money from the store....regardless...now if you used cash you are done...and cannot return outside of the store declared policy...

[ittybitnot]

FWIW

Tried to withdraw my balance this morning.  It is not working.  Entered 'code' and can't get past an additional log in page.  I guess too many other people had the same idea at the same time?