Mercari Japan Launches Auctions - Could US Be Next?

Mercari Japan launches auction offering to reduce the burden of price negotiations and help users make quick sales - could it expand to the US if successful?

The new feature was announced in a company press release, saying they've landed on auctions after testing a "listing without a price" feature last year and overwhelming feedback from users (translated by Google).

Mercari launched the "Listing without a price" feature in May 2024 to resolve the issue of "pricing" that troubles about 60% of users when listing, and to make it easier to list items.

However, the "Listing without a price" feature often takes a long time to match items, and users who used it have said, "I don't know when it will sell," and "Even if I received a proposal, the price was not satisfactory."

In addition, many users felt burdened by the price proposal in the "Listing without a price" feature, and we received comments from users such as "It's not much different from negotiating the price in the comments section" and "I don't want to negotiate the price when I buy it," showing the needs of users who want to purchase the item immediately.

In a survey conducted by Mercari, about 70% of users responded that they would like to try Mercari's auctions feature, revealing a need for users to sell rare or popular items on auctions.

The survey also revealed that users said things like, "I want to get rid of the items I want to sell quickly," and "I want to sell popular items at a higher price than normal listings," and when it comes to purchasing, "I want to purchase items at a price I'm happy with without having to make a price suggestion."

Given this background, we have decided to launch the new "auction feature," aiming to reduce the burden of communicating price suggestions and provide an environment where transactions can be made more smoothly on Mercari.

How Mercari Auctions Work

• The seller selects "Auction format" and lists the item
• A "Make a Bid" button will be displayed for items listed in an auction format.
• Potential buyers can tap "Place a bid" and enter their bid amount.
• The auction will end at 8pm on the day after the first bid is placed.
• After the auction ends, the successful bidder will be notified.
• The successful bidder will go through the normal purchase flow to complete the transaction.

Sellers can switch existing fixed price listings to auctions, but will not be able to change it back, pause the auction, or edit item details once a bid has been placed.

The winning bidder has 24 hours to pay - after that, anyone other than the successful bidder will be able to purchase the item and the non-paying bidder may have their use of Mercari restricted.

More details about Mercari Auctions can be found in the help section for their Japan site.

There are many features of Mercari Japan that have so far never migrated to their US marketplace, so it's difficult to say whether auctions will expand if they catch on, but given the tumultuous year Mercari US just went through and the fact that founder/Japan CEO Shintaro Yamada has taken over US leadership after John Lagerling's departure - anything could happen!

Do you think Mercari should allow auctions on the US site? Let us know in the comments below!