“Mercari is a place to say ‘goodbye’ to the things you’re no longer using and ‘hello’ to delightful new finds”
Mercari is a great place to sell items online, with over 250 thousand new items listed every day. Mercari has approximately 20 million active users in the United States.
Creating a Mercari account takes only seconds, and the app is simple and user-friendly. You can sell almost anything on Mercari, with top sellers being electronics and media, toys and games, and apparel.
Mercari is pretty straightforward, but I always recommend reading the terms of service before you start selling anywhere.
Looking for a Mercari Coupon? Receive $30 to spend when you sign up for Mercari here.
How to Sell on Merari
Listing an item for sale on Mercari is simple and free. On the website or mobile application, you can upload up to 12 images, and select a cover image for your listing (videos are not supported at this time).
💡Tip: Mercari strictly disallows stock photos. Don't use them! For best results, take original photos in studio or natural lighting.
Mercari allows a generous 80 characters in the title and 1000 characters in the description. There are a few drop-down boxes and character fields, including up to five hashtags.
💡Tip: Mercari does not allow emojis in titles or descriptions 😥
You May Also Be Interested In the article Poshmark vs. Mercari: Benefits & Downsides of Each Platform.
How Does Shipping Work on Mercari?
When listing an item, you also enter your shipping information, including an estimate of the item’s weight and dimensions.
Mercari allows sellers a lot of control over shipping preferences. With each listing, you will decide:
- Whether the item is available for local pick up, shipping, or both
- Whether you will opt to ship with a Mercari prepaid label or create your own.
- Which carrier you would like to ship with (for some categories)
- Whether to offer free shipping (pay for it yourself) or charge shipping costs.
Scroll down to learn more about how shipping works on Mercari. 👇🏽
Mercari Shipping Options
As a seller, you have many ways to ship on Mercari. When listing, you can decide whether to:
- Ship with Mercari or ship on your own;
- Offer free shipping or charge shipping; and
- Use USPS, FedEx, or UPS.
- Charge shipping or offer free shipping
If you choose to ship with Mercari, they will provide you with a label upon sale. However, the approximate weight and dimensions of the item in the packaging are required at the time of listing. Mercari is very strict; if you do not put the correct weight in the listing and your package is even a single ounce over, you will be charged the difference- and Mercari is not exactly known for affordable shipping. 🥴
Electing to ship on your own requires purchasing a shipping label and providing Mercari with the tracking number for the package. Usually, the rates on PirateShip are significantly more affordable than those on Mercari. So, if you’re offering free shipping and must pay out of pocket, it might be worth considering self-shipping to reduce costs.
Shipping with Mercari labels is more convenient, and your packages qualify for Mercari protection. If you ship on your own, you don’t necessarily have Mercari protection, and you might consider adding insurance to your parcels.
💡Tip: I ship with Mercari prepaid labels. While they are a bit pricier, you cannot beat the connivence of printing the label and shipping the item! Time is money, too. Plus, you are offered greater shipping protection.
Should I Offer Free Shipping on Mercari?
You also have the choice to offer free shipping (pay it yourself) or charge your buyers. Offering free shipping is recommended to allow you to be competitive. All listings with free shipping have a banner across the cover photo to indicate and advertise it! This can certainly be enticing. Mercari also has a search filter where buyers can search for items with free shipping.
💡Tip: According to Mercari, a listing is 80% more likely to sell with free shipping. Many sellers choose to offer free shipping and to price their items in consideration of the shipping cost.
Mercari Pricing
On Mercari, you want to price competitively to maximize your chances of making a sale. Remember that your items will yield next to similar items when a buyer performs a search, so you don't want yours to be the highest priced listing. For pricing suggestions, you can browse Mercari for similar items for an idea of the market.
Be sure to check out Mercari’s pricing guide for tips and tricks.
Mercari Smart Pricing
When entering your price on Mercari, I recommend selecting smart pricing. The smart-pricing feature allows you to select a “starting price” and a “bottom line” price, and it continuously updates the listing price until it hits the floor price, promoting and exposing the listing to potential buyers at each update.
Photo from Mercari Help Center
1. Set your price that will appear on your listing
2. Set a floor price (your minimum price), and let Mercari AI slowly drop from your set price to your floor price over time.
💡 Tip: Don't set your floor price at your very bottom line. Remember, in time that will be the price that is displayed on the listing, so buyers expect to be able to send and receive offers.
Mercari Smart Offers
Smart offers are another great tool to help you make sales on Mercari. Smart offers allow you to set a bottom-line price for your items.
If you have smart pricing turned on, and a buyer makes an offer, Mercari will automatically respond:
- If the offer is at or above your bottom-line price, Mercari will automatically accept the offer.
- If the offer is below your bottom-line price, Mercari will automatically send a counter-offer at your bottom line price.
Smart offers saves time and helps you to make more sales!
💡Tip: If you use Vendoo, you can establish Smart Pricing and Smart offers as defaults so you never forget to utilize these features!
Maintaining Your Mercari Listings
Mercari is a sort of a “list it and leave it” platform, requiring very little maintenance once your listings are published.
💡Tip: Consistency is key on Mercari. The best time to post is every day!
Mercari provides little opportunity to generate exposure and refresh your items in the search feed. I believe frequently delisting and relisting your listings is crucial to regular sales on Mercari.
In addition to Smart Pricing and Smart Offers, there are only two ways to generate exposure:
Sending Offers to Likers: allows you to send a special offer to those who have liked your listing. It requires that you reduce the price by at least 10%. However, to send a new offer (even to a new liker), you must always reduce the price by at least 10% lower than the historically lower price. Offers to likers expire after 24 hours.
💡Tip: Sending offers is much faster on the website, but it can also be done on the Mercari app.
Promoted Listings: allows you to boost your listings in the search results and notifies all likers about the promotion. It requires that you reduce the price by at least 5%. You can promote up to ten listings per day, and a single item can be promoted once every 24 hours (so long as the price is reduced by 5% of the lowest historical price each time).
Learn more about Offers to Likers and Promoting Listings here.
You might also be interested in What Sells Best on Mercari in 2024
Mercari Fees & Redeeming Your Balance
Mercari has one of the best fee structures with no seller fees! 😮
What Are Mercari Selling Fees?
Mercari does not have seller fees! That's right, you will receive the sale price as your balance. If you sell a pair of jeans for $20, you make $20!
In Spring 2024, Mercari removed seller fees and shifted some fees to the buyer. Buyers not pay a shopping fee and payment processing fee (dependent upon payment method.)
Note that there is a withdrawal fee of $2 per withdrawal (not per transaction). So, if you withdraw your funds, you will pay $2.
You might also be interested in the article A Reseller’s Guide to Marketplace Fees
How Do You Get Paid on Mercari? When Does Mercari Pay You?
Getting paid is simple on Mercari. After making a sale, your balance becomes available once the buyer receives and rates the transaction, or in 72 hours (whichever comes first).
You can use your balance to shop on Mercari, or transfer your funds to your bank. There are two ways to transfer your balance: direct deposit and instant pay:
- Direct deposit transfers to your bank account are usually processed the next business day but can take up to 5 business days for the funds to be transferred and available in your bank account. The fee for this service is $2
- Instant Pay: receive your funds in just minutes. This requires verifying your identity but makes your funds available instantly. The fee for this service is $3
I have never used instant pay. I've always used direct deposit and usually receive my deposit to my bank account within 2 business days. Learn more about the deposit options and requirements here.
Mercari Returns & Seller Protection
Mercari offers comprehensive seller protection.
As for returns, all sales are final unless the item(s) is not as described, damaged, or never sent. Mercari does not allow returns when an item is accurately described, so a buyer cannot return items that do not fit, that they do not like, because they have changed their mind, etc. However, buyers may attempt to initiate a return request, which takes several days to resolve, during which time your funds are held up.
Mercari has a reputation for favoring the buyer in all disputes, regardless of whether they violate their terms. They prioritize buyer satisfaction.
Overall, Mercari is a pretty good place to sell. Without a huge audience or collection of tools to increase exposure, Mercari might not ever be your best-performing platform. However, it is a good place to cross-list your inventory to achieve greater exposure and make more sales.
Did you know that with Vendoo you can crosslist your items in just a few clicks? Try it today!
Mercari Tips and Tricks to Make More Sales
Mercari is one of my favorite marketplaces. I love when I sell an item on Mercari, especially since there are no fees. Here are some of my best Mercari tips and tricks:
1. List Daily. Consistency is important on Mercari, and recency is an important factor for search ranking. For best results, list daily.
2. Delist/Relist Daily. Similarly, relisting is an excellent way to gain exposure. Because Mercari does not offer many promotional tools, there are not many opportunities to get eyes on your older listings. Don't let your listings get stale! I delist/relist every day with Vendoo!
3. Optimize SEO (search engine optimization). Your entire description is searchable on Mercari, so make sure you include all the keywords and phrases to help buyers find your items.
4. Send Offers to Likers. Most of my sales on Mercari come from sending offers to likers. I try to send offers as soon as possible after each "like" to catch attention of potential buyers. I also send even larger offers on all items with likes every weekend.
Do you sell on Mercari? Share your best tips and tricks below! 👇🏽
