Mercari US Backtracks On Fee Changes, New Fee Structure Will Be Split Between Buyers & Sellers
Mercari is finally backtracking on fee changes it made earlier this year, announcing new fee structure that splits fees between buyers and sellers will take effect January 6, 2025.
https://www.mercari.com/us/help_center/article/2517/
Our goal has always been to deliver the value you deserve regardless of whether you buy or sell on Mercari. With that in mind and after carefully considering your feedback, we have an important update: We’re rolling out a new fee structure starting on January 6, 2025.
When we introduced our current fee structure in March, our aim was to make selling more accessible to sellers. However, we realized this structure wasn’t helping sellers sell more and ultimately negatively impacted Mercari and our community by reducing overall transactions on the marketplace. The new fee structure addresses these concerns.
Our new fee structure:
We’re reintroducing a selling fee and lowering the buyer fee. This new fee structure aligns the benefits you receive with the fees you pay.For Sellers
- A flat 10% selling fee applies to item price and buyer-paid shipping
- Free ACH direct deposits for successful withdrawals. A $2 fee applies only for rejected deposits. Limit to one direct deposit per day.
For Buyers
- A flat 3.6% Buyer Protection fee applies to item price and buyer-paid shipping
- No additional payment processing fee
- Buyer Protection includes: A cancelation and refund policy, returns on eligible items, trusted transactions and 24/7 customer support
The new fee structure will apply to new and updated listings starting on January 6 and may take up to one week to reflect automatically across all existing listings. To support this transition, later this month you can choose to increase your listing prices in bulk so you can earn the same amount.
Mercari has been struggling since shaking up their fee structure in March, removing selling fees and shifting the fee burden to the buyer side of the sale instead at that time.
The company faced pushback from buyers who experienced massive sticker shock when seeing additional fees tacked on at checkout, with some making unflattering comparisons to airline fees or worse yet - buying tickets from Ticketmaster!
Buyers were particularly taken aback because the fees were variable and at times exceeded the 10% fee which had previously been applied on the seller side, raising serious concerns about transparency that have forced Mercari to promise to put a cap on buyer fees and test different ways of showing buyer fees before checkout to stem the tide of abandoned carts.
Liz Morton
Unfortunately, the fee structure shakeup proved disastrous to Mercari's US performance, leading to a mass layoff of ~45% staff in June with US CEO John Lagerling admitting the change had increased the number of listings on the site, but had "not delivered the short-term results that we had hoped for on the buyer/ GMV side."
Liz Morton
Mercari has been facing increasing pressure from their shareholders in Japan to address the continued underperformance and lack of GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) growth of their US marketplace for months, leading to the announcement that Lagerling will be resigning at the end of the year and Founder/ Japan CEO Shintaro Yamada will lead both Japan and US operations in 2025.
Liz Morton
Competitor Poshmark speed ran their own version of this fee swapping test in October, before quickly reversing course after only 3 weeks and significant user outcry over the changes.
Liz Morton
Meanwhile, eBay says they are staying the course with fee-free private sales and plans to introduce buyer fees in the UK in 2025 - it will be interesting to see if they learn anything from their competitors' failures and tweak how they plan to implement the fees or possibly abandon the idea all together before it rolls out.
What do you think of Mercari's fee reversal? Let us know in the comments below!
