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This is an older article but I think it has interesting analysis. This part in particular seems relevant to me, re explaining how Mercari found success over established players in Japan:
“…the existing players were aiming at power sellers and seemed to be forgetting about the regular, casual sellers. Selling was too complicated for normal users. To take on this market we focused on smartphone users. Once we were successful in creating a great selling experience on smartphones, we saw very rapid growth.”
It also explains the challenges about Americans pushing through returns, experiencing greater fraud, etc.
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I’m a dinosaur, and a latecomer to smartphones. (The better half doesn’t have one, period. I have an old ZenFone2 I picked up a yard sale for $10 a couple summers ago). But what amazes me is that ebay was so out in front with the ebay app (ebay had an app before Apple had an App Store)….and yet I hear a LOT of complaints about ebay’s app (especially for listing). To their credit, they foresaw the rise of Mobile before many of their competitors. But they let that advantage slip away, IMO.
I think part of the problem may be that it might be easier to start from scratch than to try to transform a long established site like eBay. An example: I’ve seen recent criticism of one of the changes ebay made to the listing app—apparently it now allows only GTC listings, no 30 day or shorter durations. Predictably, sellers are complaining that one size doesn’t fit all, they need duration choices etc. But if you are creating a new site, you can just say duration is GTC. Period. No one is going to complain because there is not and never has been a choice on the new site. People will just accept it.
So ebay has to deal with pushback that sites like mercari can often avoid.
Still, ebay is a big, rich company, and it’s just hard to understand why they can’t move more quickly to compete.
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I have bought and sold about 20 items on Mercari at this point. I have mainly sold better brand clothing and pop culture items but I plan to cross-post some vintage soon. I see Mercari having an advantage because it’s very Google friendly with its hashtags (optional) and short titles.
It’s super efficient and simple. Once you start using it, you can see how clunky Ebay is. Ebay wants to add a lot of new users, but there is a bigger learning curve then these clean apps and the fees are higher on Ebay. Mercari right now is a straight 10% off the top, transfers balance to your bank account free without going through Paypal. Mercari can’t collect sales tax yet or give you combined sales summaries. For items over a pound, Mercari passes on good shipping discounts vs Ebay.
I really love it because it’s uber fast to list and time is my major challenge. No need to type and finish on the desktop like Ebay. Only a couple of item specifics you finger tap with super simple categories and shipping. I think you get +/- 30% lower prices than Poshmark or Ebay at this time and buyers are encouraged to make offers. Mercari has a daily 10 item max promote feature I use to drop prices once I have likes (watchers).
I had an issue as a buyer with a brand misrepresented, and Mercari asked for a bunch of photos, took a few days to review but it was all done by messaging, so no annoying long waits or calls with a clueless foreign rep. I have read, however, that Mercari can be kind of harsh vs. Ebay, have closed accounts with balances, etc. I wouldn’t list expensive items (over $75) and I transfer out my balance regularly. None of my buyers have refused to approve merchandise yet or failed to rate me within 3 days. Returns are essentially discouraged. It’s my understanding that the buyer has to demonstrate that the item is not as described, so I suspect the return rate is much lower than Ebay and that is nice for clothing.
If anyone is interested, I’ll let you know how vintage does. Most of the FB people reviewing seem to be selling clothing and not home goods or vintage. I read that shoes do well.
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