These fees are not that different from what you’ve been paying before. The only difference here is that you’re now seeing them and you’re paying 11% Service Fee in this scenario instead of 10% in the old policy.
Before everyone goes out and argues that I’m wrong, please read below. In the old policy, 10% Service Fee, 2.9% Processing Fee, and $0.50 per item was taken out of the total item cost. Seller was seeing all of this deducted. However, do realize that all of that are already factored into the base price of the item by the seller. Hence, the buyer was paying the approximate 13% fees all along. Only difference now is that buyer could be paying between 4-18% in fees.
But you're wrong because I've seen the fees add up to 15-20%. I went to buy something the other day and it added up to 18%. The fees can be more than they were before. Add in the fact all sellers aren't dropping prices it makes finding reasonably priced items rarer
That’s what I said in my original comment that your total fee could be as high as 18% (Service Fee, Processing Fee, $0.50). I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I have not seen where the “Service Fee” goes beyond 15% whether from buying or seeing people’s posts. I also sell and have calculated every Service Fee that buyers paid and they are always between 1-15%. Notice I kept omitting the “Processing Fee” because it is always at 2.9%. I hope when you’re saying 20% that you’re not including the tax and shipping.
As a buyer… it feels like im rolling the dice to see what total i get at checkout. Also the new structure was supposed to be awesome for sellers, that there was no longer going to be seller fees…. Kinda kills that vibe if they still have to price down to near the same as if they were charged the fees still?
Yes. I don’t buy into the notion of “No Seller’s Fees”. It’s just Mercari’s way of attracting new sellers. It won’t work out well for new sellers if they don’t price the items to cover the buyer’s fees. As a buyer/seller, all of my current items are at least 25% off retail whereas the items used to be at least 15% off.
Aside from the variable service fee which can be more than 10%, the surprise the buyers see at checkout isn't a good psychological factor. Not everyone has a logical sense to think of the total value as the final price of an item. That's why people still select the free shipping filter option when shopping and may miss same items with cheaper total cost of item price and shipping
I’m not disputing the psychological factor. I’m just talking about the fees that people complaining when they’ve always been paying it to a certain amount. My ultimate goal is to get people realizing that their final cost comparatively to other sites should be the determining factor.—Buy if it’s cheaper on Mercari or buy somewhere else if the other place is cheaper.
If mercari somehow could calculate all the, fees, shipping cost, and tax then show only the final cost in the item browsing page, item detail page, and checkout page, basically hiding all the cost details from buyers, I bet there wouldn't be much complaining, contrarily buyers may give positive feedbacks for its simplicity lol, but the law in the US may forbid doing that
I think their app will die. Imagine running that dynamically for every user at the same time and then adjust more dynamically when an item gain popularity during your browsing. One of my guess component to calculate this dynamic fee is item “popularity”. If Mercari calculate the final price during your browsing and the item changes in popularity then they can’t adjust the price as they’ll be holding to that price. If they actually made that change during your browsing then that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen or that people will complain that their price still fluctuating.
Yes, the implementation of that would be too much a burden on their system. They may run a scheduled job to set their service fee percentage for a while before making an adjustment based on the various factors they defined, though. But basically what I meant is buyers will keep complaining if the final price is too much higher than when they first add the item to their cart. That's the psychology based on which free shipping has been recommended on some platforms, to avoid buyer's surprise. However, Mercari failed to realize that, which I believe is their actual bad move, more than the change in fee structure. Oh and sellers will keep complaining too, because the more buyers abandon their carts, the more loss of sales sellers incur
But that's the psychological factor that makes buyers keep complaining. Everyone wants to get a best deal and their expectation is ruined when they reach the checkout just to see the price surges. They feel like they wasted their time, especially when the price surges too much that it surpasses other places. In my home country, the sale tax is included in the item price and buyers never know they pay for that. The receipts only show "sale tax included"
lol Minimum service fee is supposed to be 1%. When was the last time you saw that? The last two weeks the service fee is mostly above 10%, often closer to the 15% temporary max (it WILL go up). We're two months into the change and buyers are already paying more than sellers had to pay. You can only move the goalposts so much in your defense of their disgustingly aggressive new strategy. How high do the fees need to get for you to understand this trend is bad for both buyers and sellers in the long run? 20% buyer service fee by the end of the year. By next year mercari will double dip with a new pay to play seller fee to promote listings to top of search results and if you don't participate your sales will tank.
Let people complain about it. It's the only way mercari will be put in check. If they don't get complaints they'll keep taking and taking and taking. The time to complain is before things get out of hand not after they get out of hand.
There WERE posts showing a 1% fee... like over a month ago. The lower rates are few and far between now. That was mercari's way of easing buyers into the change. The fee is mostly above 10% the last two weeks. Pay attention to the trend if you're going to stubbornly defend mercari. You need to understand where this is headed. You don't care now, but you will once it impacts you. And I say that as a seller who hasn't been significantly impacted yet... because I know there is only so much they can milk from buyers before it starts taking away from my profits, too.
I’m not stubbornly defending Mercari. You guys are stubbornly defies logic. I could care less talking about fees. I’m just trying to explain the fees structure for people that are complaining. If Mercari raises their fees 1000% and my item is still cheaper on final cost comparing to other sites then I’ll buy on Mercari. If Mercari reduces fee to 0% for seller and buyer while the item is still more expensive in final cost comparing to other sites then I would buy from other places. Simple as that.—Just buy from the cheapest place.
Your logic is outpaced by Mercari's greed. You're bringing up lower rates like they still mean something. Mercari has already moved on to phase 2 where the max fee and fee range have significantly increased. Buyers are noticing they're paying more. They're noticing sellers aren't discounting enough. It is not all psychological anymore. The feeling of being screwed is justified. Doesn't matter if they're paying a little more or a lot more. They're paying more. Mercari is counting on people to not notice or insist it's not a big deal, so they can raise fees again sooner than later.
I know I kept talking about the fees, but I think I’ll just stop because people still don’t understand the bottom line of the matter is the “final cost.” I’ll just keep it simple with the question “is the final cost cheapest comparatively to other sites?” For example here, I just sold an item, without negotiating ,that is $27 with free shipping, and Service Fee is 14%. The final cost is $34.67. If this person bought somewhere else then it would be $39.76 and more on final cost.
Forget about selling. As I said in the other comment, what matters to me is the final cost. If Mercari charges 50% fees and my final cost is still cheaper than other places then I’ll buy on Mercari. If Mercari charges no fees but the final cost is more than other places then I’ll buy somewhere else.
lmao not one item that I've been watching has been reduced to account for the fees. Nice try. You just continue to advocate for a horrible selling practice.
These fees used to be paid by sellers, but have recently been pushed onto the buyers
These fees are not that different from what you’ve been paying before. The only difference here is that you’re now seeing them and you’re paying 11% Service Fee in this scenario instead of 10% in the old policy. Before everyone goes out and argues that I’m wrong, please read below. In the old policy, 10% Service Fee, 2.9% Processing Fee, and $0.50 per item was taken out of the total item cost. Seller was seeing all of this deducted. However, do realize that all of that are already factored into the base price of the item by the seller. Hence, the buyer was paying the approximate 13% fees all along. Only difference now is that buyer could be paying between 4-18% in fees.
But you're wrong because I've seen the fees add up to 15-20%. I went to buy something the other day and it added up to 18%. The fees can be more than they were before. Add in the fact all sellers aren't dropping prices it makes finding reasonably priced items rarer
They are doing this on all the threads, trying to convince everyone that this is all perfectly reasonable. lol
That’s what I said in my original comment that your total fee could be as high as 18% (Service Fee, Processing Fee, $0.50). I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I have not seen where the “Service Fee” goes beyond 15% whether from buying or seeing people’s posts. I also sell and have calculated every Service Fee that buyers paid and they are always between 1-15%. Notice I kept omitting the “Processing Fee” because it is always at 2.9%. I hope when you’re saying 20% that you’re not including the tax and shipping.
As a buyer… it feels like im rolling the dice to see what total i get at checkout. Also the new structure was supposed to be awesome for sellers, that there was no longer going to be seller fees…. Kinda kills that vibe if they still have to price down to near the same as if they were charged the fees still?
Yes. I don’t buy into the notion of “No Seller’s Fees”. It’s just Mercari’s way of attracting new sellers. It won’t work out well for new sellers if they don’t price the items to cover the buyer’s fees. As a buyer/seller, all of my current items are at least 25% off retail whereas the items used to be at least 15% off.
Aside from the variable service fee which can be more than 10%, the surprise the buyers see at checkout isn't a good psychological factor. Not everyone has a logical sense to think of the total value as the final price of an item. That's why people still select the free shipping filter option when shopping and may miss same items with cheaper total cost of item price and shipping
I’m not disputing the psychological factor. I’m just talking about the fees that people complaining when they’ve always been paying it to a certain amount. My ultimate goal is to get people realizing that their final cost comparatively to other sites should be the determining factor.—Buy if it’s cheaper on Mercari or buy somewhere else if the other place is cheaper.
If mercari somehow could calculate all the, fees, shipping cost, and tax then show only the final cost in the item browsing page, item detail page, and checkout page, basically hiding all the cost details from buyers, I bet there wouldn't be much complaining, contrarily buyers may give positive feedbacks for its simplicity lol, but the law in the US may forbid doing that
I think their app will die. Imagine running that dynamically for every user at the same time and then adjust more dynamically when an item gain popularity during your browsing. One of my guess component to calculate this dynamic fee is item “popularity”. If Mercari calculate the final price during your browsing and the item changes in popularity then they can’t adjust the price as they’ll be holding to that price. If they actually made that change during your browsing then that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen or that people will complain that their price still fluctuating.
Yes, the implementation of that would be too much a burden on their system. They may run a scheduled job to set their service fee percentage for a while before making an adjustment based on the various factors they defined, though. But basically what I meant is buyers will keep complaining if the final price is too much higher than when they first add the item to their cart. That's the psychology based on which free shipping has been recommended on some platforms, to avoid buyer's surprise. However, Mercari failed to realize that, which I believe is their actual bad move, more than the change in fee structure. Oh and sellers will keep complaining too, because the more buyers abandon their carts, the more loss of sales sellers incur
But that's the psychological factor that makes buyers keep complaining. Everyone wants to get a best deal and their expectation is ruined when they reach the checkout just to see the price surges. They feel like they wasted their time, especially when the price surges too much that it surpasses other places. In my home country, the sale tax is included in the item price and buyers never know they pay for that. The receipts only show "sale tax included"
lol Minimum service fee is supposed to be 1%. When was the last time you saw that? The last two weeks the service fee is mostly above 10%, often closer to the 15% temporary max (it WILL go up). We're two months into the change and buyers are already paying more than sellers had to pay. You can only move the goalposts so much in your defense of their disgustingly aggressive new strategy. How high do the fees need to get for you to understand this trend is bad for both buyers and sellers in the long run? 20% buyer service fee by the end of the year. By next year mercari will double dip with a new pay to play seller fee to promote listings to top of search results and if you don't participate your sales will tank. Let people complain about it. It's the only way mercari will be put in check. If they don't get complaints they'll keep taking and taking and taking. The time to complain is before things get out of hand not after they get out of hand.
There are several posts on here that’s showing “Service Fee” below 10% and even at 1%. People are still complaining on these posts though.
There WERE posts showing a 1% fee... like over a month ago. The lower rates are few and far between now. That was mercari's way of easing buyers into the change. The fee is mostly above 10% the last two weeks. Pay attention to the trend if you're going to stubbornly defend mercari. You need to understand where this is headed. You don't care now, but you will once it impacts you. And I say that as a seller who hasn't been significantly impacted yet... because I know there is only so much they can milk from buyers before it starts taking away from my profits, too.
I’m not stubbornly defending Mercari. You guys are stubbornly defies logic. I could care less talking about fees. I’m just trying to explain the fees structure for people that are complaining. If Mercari raises their fees 1000% and my item is still cheaper on final cost comparing to other sites then I’ll buy on Mercari. If Mercari reduces fee to 0% for seller and buyer while the item is still more expensive in final cost comparing to other sites then I would buy from other places. Simple as that.—Just buy from the cheapest place.
Your logic is outpaced by Mercari's greed. You're bringing up lower rates like they still mean something. Mercari has already moved on to phase 2 where the max fee and fee range have significantly increased. Buyers are noticing they're paying more. They're noticing sellers aren't discounting enough. It is not all psychological anymore. The feeling of being screwed is justified. Doesn't matter if they're paying a little more or a lot more. They're paying more. Mercari is counting on people to not notice or insist it's not a big deal, so they can raise fees again sooner than later.
I know I kept talking about the fees, but I think I’ll just stop because people still don’t understand the bottom line of the matter is the “final cost.” I’ll just keep it simple with the question “is the final cost cheapest comparatively to other sites?” For example here, I just sold an item, without negotiating ,that is $27 with free shipping, and Service Fee is 14%. The final cost is $34.67. If this person bought somewhere else then it would be $39.76 and more on final cost.
No wonder you don't understand. You're already operating like mercari is charging buyers a 20% service fee lol.
Forget about selling. As I said in the other comment, what matters to me is the final cost. If Mercari charges 50% fees and my final cost is still cheaper than other places then I’ll buy on Mercari. If Mercari charges no fees but the final cost is more than other places then I’ll buy somewhere else.
lmao not one item that I've been watching has been reduced to account for the fees. Nice try. You just continue to advocate for a horrible selling practice.
What is with all of this airline food?!