“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. According to a recent press report, Mercari now has 20 million active users in the United States, representing rapid company growth and an expanding audience. 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.
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Mercari is pretty straightforward, but I recommend reading the terms of service before you get started selling on Mercari.
Receive $30 to spend when you sign up for Mercari here.
Listing Items for Sale
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). 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 three hashtags.
Mercari Fact: Mercari does not allow emojis in titles, listings, or messaging.
When listing an item, you also enter your shipping information; whether the item is available for pick up or shipping, and whether you will opt to ship with a Mercari label or create your own. You can also choose whether you will offer free shipping (pay yourself) or for shipping costs to be covered by your buyer. Depending on your selections, you may require the item’s weight and dimensions.
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.
Be sure to check out Mercari’s pricing guide for tips and tricks.
Mercari Fact: Multi-quantity listings are not supported on Mercari, you will require separate listings for items that you wish to sell many of.
Maintaining Your Mercari Listings
Mercari is a sort of a “list it and leave it” platform, whereby very little maintenance is required once your listings are published. That said, that provides very little opportunity to generate exposure and refresh your items in the search feed. In my opinion, frequently delisting and relisting your listings is crucial to making regular sales on Mercari.
In addition to Smart Pricing, there are only two ways to generate exposure:
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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.
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The Promote Listings feature boosts 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.
Shipping on Mercari
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.
If you choose to ship with Mercari, they will provide you with a label upon sale via email. However, the weight and dimensions of the item in packaging are required at the time of listing. Electing to ship on your own requires purchasing a shipping label and providing Mercari with the tracking information for the package.
Mercari Tip: When using Mercari labels, you will have to reformat them on your computer to allow for shipping on a 4x6 label.
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 the same.
You can also select the shipping carrier whom you are most comfortable with based upon your items, location, and business preferences.
Mercari Tip: My personal Mercari model is to offer free shipping and to ship on my own using Pirate Ship for the best rates.
Mercari Fees & Redeeming Your Balance
Mercari has one of the best fee structures, with incredibly low selling fees.
Mercari Fees are approximately 13%; that is, a 10% commission fee and 2.9% plus $0.30 in processing fees.
Ex: If you sell an item for $20, you will make $17.12 (less your COG and shipping costs).
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).
There are two ways to request 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. Alternatively, Mercari offers Instant Pay which pays out in just minutes, for a $2 fee. This requires verifying your identity but makes your funds available instantly.
Learn more about the deposit options and requirements here.
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 and this process takes several days to be resolved, during which time your funds are held up.
Conclusion
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.
Personally, I achieve success on Mercari by frequently delisting and relisting my items with Vendoo. I sell quite a few mall brand pieces on Mercari. PINK Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Adidas, and Forever 21 fly out of my Mercari store. I have also had success with children’s apparel, toys, and games. I also enjoy purchasing on Mercari, as the prices are generally low, and they have a built-in designer authentication program, so you can purchase luxury items with greater confidence.
Mercari Tip: Mercari is known for favoring the buyer in disputes. Be sure to protect yourself by clearly depicting your items’ condition in photographs and your description.
Get started selling on Mercari today by signing up here.
Do you sell on Mercari? Share your best tips and tricks below!
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