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....

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@redlinear  "Shorter return window helps"

It's interesting the way one's experience plays a part in this. As an ebay seller, you see 3 day returns and think: "Oooh, I WISH!" because you are used to ebay's return policy.

I see many Mercari sellers now vowing to leave the site because they are used to Mercari's policy which has been "buyers must jump through hoops to make a not as described claim" and there's no such thing as a buyer's remorse return.

But now, buyers will be able to return for ANY reason, without jumping through hoops, and Mercari sellers are NOT focused on "hey, it's only three days" they are focused on "return for any reason." 

[redlinear]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

Yeah but the thing that really hurts this website still is the option of NO RETURNS. I cannot imagine how many customer here have been disgusted when a seller fights them for a return of merchandise. These would have been great customers who would come back and buy but once they get that taste of a distasteful seller, they probably leave for good. Just my opinion.

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It's the site.
The complaint here is "I'll never buy anything off of eBay again".
Rather than, that eBay seller, it gets blamed on the site.
   And eBay is quickly getting the reputation for Cheap Chinese Cra..stuff.   
If you google enough, that's what you see.
  Somebody wondering if the "Cheap eBay Item" is any good, or should they go ahead and order a quality one direct from a company.

[luckythewinner]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

Wow that’s mighty enticing for sellers to abandon ship on here

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I would hesitate to start selling on a site where the site itself just raised prices by 8-10% overnight. 

I would wait to see how buyers will react first.

I suspect a lot of buyers will abandon their cart when they see they are being charged a fee in order to spend money.

[redlinear]

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques 
Has alot to do with what ya sell I guess.  (for me anyway).
My buyers know how to get a free shipping label. (car part is no good, doesn't work).
When they really just changed their mind for some reason.
   So when the part is returned, I throw it in the trash if I can't re-test it. (and there's probably nothing wrong with it).
Parts that can be re-tested?  It's sure been a long time since a returned part, that I could test, was actually as described by the buyer. 
Three days for any reason, tends to stop that issue.
I've often put free returns for ANY REASON in my listings just to keep buyers honest about returns

[redlinear]

I dunno, I can't afford to leave.  Not sure I can afford to stay either..LOL
But if that other place entices enough sellers?  The buyers will follow.
They sure seem to trying to turn it into something it appears.

[gloryglorygifts]

Interesting, thanks for sharing it. I guess we will see what happens, if anything, here.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

A little additional information which helps to explain Mercari's motivation:

"Mercari operates in Japan and the U.S., but Lagerling said these new changes will only impact the U.S. market. Mercari allows users to sell and buy products in new and used conditions. In December, Mercari reported its highest-ever revenue. Its marketplace gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew 10% year-over-year to 280.9 billion Japanese Yen or about $1.85 billion, according to its second-quarter report. However, its U.S. GMV declined 12% year-over-year. "

Souce: https://www.modernretail.co/operations/mercari-eliminates-selling-fees-heightening-competition-with-...

[yuzuha]

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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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It really isn't. What if you buy something for a birthday or Christmas gift but aren't going to actually give it for a week or two? Are you supposed to open up someone else's gift to make sure that it's working/isn't damaged?

[richard1rst]

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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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Why would that bother you. You do not seem to be selling clothes.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

Yeah but the thing that really hurts this website still is the option of NO RETURNS. I cannot imagine how many customer here have been disgusted when a seller fights them for a return of merchandise. These would have been great customers who would come back and buy but once they get that taste of a distasteful seller, they probably leave for good. Just my opinion.

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Not all customers who sell with no returns fight the customer for a return of merchandise.

Many of those who sell with no returns get so few returns that they will take back an item when asked nicely.

Whether no returns is an obstacle to selling and loyalty depends on what sort of merchandise the seller offers. Amazing, since most customer service issues depend on what sort of merchandise the seller offers.

I'd no more sell auto parts than I would sell ladies' clothing. I wish to minimize post sales customer service issues, and do not wish to try do so by being a crabby old man.

I like a lot of my buyers, and do not dislike the rest of them.

The problem with extreme cross listing on multiple venues is trying to reconcile differing policies, unless you adopt an extremely customer friendly policy on all venues.

When I sold on multiple venues, I had different identities on each, and the most restrictive published policies which were permitted for each venue, and the most liberal on my own website. Eventually, it was not worth the effort of multiple venues, Amazon generated enough revenue to eliminate all the others. Unfortunately, Amazon stopped generating enough.

[valueaddedresource]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:

A little additional information which helps to explain Mercari's motivation:

"Mercari operates in Japan and the U.S., but Lagerling said these new changes will only impact the U.S. market. Mercari allows users to sell and buy products in new and used conditions. In December, Mercari reported its highest-ever revenue. Its marketplace gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew 10% year-over-year to 280.9 billion Japanese Yen or about $1.85 billion, according to its second-quarter report. However, its U.S. GMV declined 12% year-over-year. "

Souce: https://www.modernretail.co/operations/mercari-eliminates-selling-fees-heightening-competition-with-...

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques that's another reason I expect we'll see eBay continue to expand on their version of fee free selling for private/non-business sellers.

eBay has finally managed to level off the number of active buyers (relatively stable at 132M) but that's still below the 141M they had in Q1 2018, let alone the 151M it had grown to by Q4 2019.

Not only is eBay under pressure to show they can make Active Buyers go up again, Jamie told Wall Street on the Q4 earnings call they are projecting to return to GMV growth by Q3 or Q4 this year.

Both Active Buyers and GMV don't measure or care about fees - they simply measure the number of buyers who pay for a purchase within the last 12 months and the total dollar amount of those purchases, including shipping and tax.

Re-engaging C2C sellers, especially sellers who also buy, is about the only way I can see that eBay might have of creating a noticeable upward trend in either of those numbers to meet those projections. The fact some of those sales won't be generating Final Value Fees is not seen as a problem, at least in the short term, since some of those sellers may still be paying Promoted Listings fees and even if they aren't....everyone else is paying more than enough in PL fees to make up for it.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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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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It really isn't. What if you buy something for a birthday or Christmas gift but aren't going to actually give it for a week or two? Are you supposed to open up someone else's gift to make sure that it's working/isn't damaged?

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 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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[chevymontecarlo88]

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Not all customers who sell with no returns fight the customer for a return of merchandise.

Many of those who sell with no returns get so few returns that they will take back an item when asked nicely.

Whether no returns is an obstacle to selling and loyalty depends on what sort of merchandise the seller offers. Amazing, since most customer service issues depend on what sort of merchandise the seller offers.

I'd no more sell auto parts than I would sell ladies' clothing. I wish to minimize post sales customer service issues, and do not wish to try do so by being a crabby old man.

I like a lot of my buyers, and do not dislike the rest of them.

☝️Well said. 100% agree

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

@valueaddedresource  I agree that if ebay really expects to increase GMV for Q3 and Q4 they are going to have to make some changes. Actually marketing the site (rather than only the focus categories) might help, as would attracting more c to c "sellers who are buyers". Whether they can pull that off---with or without a major change to seller fees---is hard to say. The changes that have been announced so far this year are not likely to be enough to make much difference, so they probably heed to announce some game changing stuff in the upcoming quarter to make a difference in time for Q3 and Q4.

[dhbookds]

I think buyers are going to be "shocked" when they go to pay and see the extra charges.......ones they can't anticipate while shopping......so cart abandonment is going to be a real problem.  I tried to put something in a cart to see what it looked like, but couldn't do that without "signing up".......which I didn't want to do........don't need more spam. 

Ebay could try to revamp the old "bonus" points in some way to try to keep buyers on ebay......never understood why they abandoned that to begin with.