One of the sure ways to boost your sales on any platform is offering discounts to potential buyers — and Mercari has all the functionality you may need to do that effectively. From sending offers to likers to making counteroffers, there are plenty of ways to make this platform work in your favor. So, here’s everything you should know about making and responding to offers on Mercari.
Key Takeaways:
- Making offers to likers and accepting offers from interested shoppers is an excellent way to increase sales on Mercari.
- Understanding how offers work for both sellers and buyers, as well as what limitations they come with, will help you make the most of this feature.
- Mercari offers are binding, and only sellers have the option to cancel the deal, whether before or after the offer is accepted.
- Vendoo’s Send Offers feature is a great tool for sellers to manage offers not only on Mercari but also across other selling platforms.
How Do Mercari Offers Work?
Similar to other selling platforms like Poshmark or Depop, Mercari has an Offer feature to help buyers and sellers negotiate item prices more efficiently.
Mercari offers are available to both buyers and sellers but work differently depending on who initiated the negotiations.
Mercari Offers for Sellers
As a seller, you have two options to offer price reductions to potential buyers.
The first one is Offer to Likers. It allows you to send special discounts to people who have previously liked your item. To use this feature, you’ll need to drop the price by at least 10%. And if you’d like to repeat this action over time, each new price would have to be 10% lower than the item’s lowest historical price.
Example: If your starting price is $50, you should set a discounted price to at least $45 the first time you’re making an offer. The next time, the maximum price you can suggest would be $40.5 (10% off the previous lowest price of $45).
💡Tip: At some point, when the price limit becomes too low, most sellers eventually choose to delete and relist items to reset their starting price. Given this system, it may be wise to slightly overprice your items, making room for more frequent and more reasonable discounts.
The offer amount isn’t the only limitation the Offer to Likers feature comes with. It also notifies only the last 50 likers per item and expires after 24 hours.
Another useful feature sellers can use to offer price reductions is Promote. It is different from Offer to Likers in a way that the minimum price drop you must offer is 5%, and this drop is permanent. Also, in addition to notifying your likers, it boosts your listing in the search results, so you can get more exposure and sell your items faster. You can always check the latest information on Mercari’s Promote and Offer to Likers features here.
The good news about all Mercari Offers, compared to Depop, for instance, is that they are binding, meaning as soon as an offer is accepted, it’s a done deal.
💡Tip: Use Vendoo’s Send Offers feature to automate the process of sending out offers. It works not just on Mercari but on Depop, Poshmark, and other platforms too. Sign up for Vendoo for FREE today!
You can learn more about this feature in our article Vendoo Send Offer Feature: Send Offers to Likers Automatically or Manually in Bulk.
Mercari Offers for Buyers
To make the most of Mercari Offers as a seller, wouldn’t it be helpful to also learn how offers work for buyers? Absolutely!
So, buyers can make an offer on any item as long as the discount they are asking for is not bigger than 25% of the listing price. They can also make offers on bundles, with no minimum offer amount in that case.
While each offer is binding once accepted, it doesn’t hold a reservation for the person making it. This means that until the seller responds — for which sellers have 24 hours — anyone else can still purchase the item at full price.
Note: When someone makes an offer on an item, everyone who has previously liked this item receives a notification. This handy function stirs up a sense of demand and competition among potential buyers.
What Are Smart Offers for Sellers?
In addition to all the functionality discussed above, Mercari sellers can benefit from the Smart Offers feature powered by the platform’s AI. What it does, basically, is allow you to set a floor price for your items and automatically respond to offers that come in:
- If the offer is at or above that price, it will be accepted.
- If it’s below, the buyer will receive a counteroffer at your floor price.
Enabling Smart Offers allows sellers to avoid the back-and-forth of manual negotiations and lowball offers, ultimately saving time and closing sales faster.
To learn more about Smart Offers and other Mercari seller tips, read our guide How to Sell on Mercari: Become an Expert in 9 Steps.
How Do You Make an Offer on Mercari?
If you think you’re ready to start using Mercari Offers, here are the step-by-step instructions.
Making an Offer as a Seller
Step 1: Start with identifying the right timing. For most items that don’t receive much traction, a good rule of thumb is to wait until you have at least 10 likers.
Step 2: Go to your listing and click “Promote” at the bottom left corner. Then select “Offer to likers.”
Step 3: Enter the discounted price, making sure it’s at least 10% off the lowest listing price but more than $1. Click “Send offer to likers.”
Step 4: Review your offer and click “Send offer.”
Making an Offer as a Buyer
Step 1: Make sure your address and payment details are up to date.
Step 2: On the listing page in your app or on the website, click on the “Make offer” button, which is located next to “Add to cart” and “Buy now.”
Step 3: Choose one of the price options recommended or enter your own amount and click “Review your offer” and “Send offer” on the next screen.
Step 4: Wait for the seller to respond within 24 hours. If they accept, the offer amount will be automatically charged to your payment method.
Sometimes, buyers complain that the Mercari offer button disappeared from the listing. This could mean one of the following:
- they may have been blocked by the seller;
- there may be a glitch in the app or on the website;
- their app may not be up to date.
To check which one is the case, buyers can try changing how they access Mercari (app vs. desktop browser), asking a friend to check if the Mercari offer button disappeared for them too, or updating the app.
Sending a Counteroffer
Step 1: Find the new offer notification in the notifications tab.
Step 2: Click “Counter” and enter the price you’re willing to respond with. Then click “Next.”
Step 3: Optionally, add a message to make negotiations more considerate.
How Do You Cancel an Offer on Mercari?
Since Mercari offers are binding, there’s no option for shoppers to cancel their offers.
If a buyer makes an offer and changes their mind before the seller responds, they can message the seller and kindly ask to decline or ignore it. If they change their mind after the offer is accepted, they may try reaching out to the seller directly with an order cancellation request or contacting Mercari so that the support agents can negotiate with the seller on the buyer’s behalf.
In either scenario, it would be the courtesy of that particular seller to decline or cancel, as according to the platform’s rules, buyers are obliged to proceed with their purchases.
Now, as a seller, you have the option to decline or ignore an offer you’re not interested in. If you have already accepted the offer but want to cancel the sale at the buyer’s request or for other reasons, you need to go to the order status page and click “Refund buyer.”
Streamline Your Mercari Sales with Vendoo
Being a successful reseller requires more than just using the right techniques to attract buyers. You also need to be smart about your time. With tools like Vendoo, you can increase your efficiency as a seller by crosslisting your items to multiple platforms, managing those listings effectively, and automating as many processes as possible.
Vendoo’s Send Offers feature will allow you to send bulk offers manually or automate them across top platforms, including Mercari, Poshmark, Depop, and eBay.
Ready to grow your reselling business? Learn how to get started with Vendoo!
