Spring is here! Do you know what that means? Besides more sunshine, it means it is the season for cleaning and organizing. Personally, spring cleaning is one of my favourite times of the year. However, I used to always get stuck, not knowing where to sell the items I had decluttered. Until I discovered Mercari!
Mercari is a marketplace where you can become a seller and declutter all the items in your home that you no longer need. Did we mention that you can make money off of selling your unwanted items? Well, you can! Isn’t that awesome? Your old treasured items still have value and can be passed onto a new home. Letting go never felt so good.
Mercari connects buyers and sellers across the U.S to shop and sell almost anything. On the platform, there are categories from clothing, toys, electronics, beauty and much more. There are 50 million users on the platform already, so the chances you find a buyer is high. Your one-of-a-kind treasures can find a new home while you create a decluttered space. The app makes the exchange as easy as possible.
However, like many other marketplace platforms, fees on mercari can sneak up and upset you if you do not know why your sales money has been stripped away. So, If you are ready to join the Mercari platform, keep reading to learn everything there is to know about selling on the platform and the fees that come with it.
BONUS: You will get great tips on how to deal with mercari fees at the end of this post
We have outlined the ultimate Mercari Fees guide so you can make the best of the platform.
So, what are Mercari’s Fees?
Selling on Mercari does come with a price. However, in my opinion, the price is worthwhile. Let me explain. As mentioned above, Mercari has over 50 million users. This gives your items exposure that would be hard to receive elsewhere for free. Therefore, don’t think of the platform fees as losing money off of your sale. Instead, think of it as a marketing expense. Marketing is usually a huge cost as it’s typically challenging to get a product in front of the target audience. Luckily, the benefit of using the platform is that Mercari does this job for you. They essentially market your items by connecting you with buyers.
Most marketplaces will usually take fees at different points: When a listing is made, when an item is sold, and when special features are used. Mercari doesn’t follow this 100%, let’s see how mercari fees stack up in the reselling landscape!
Listing Fees
The excellent feature of Mercari is that sellers can post their listings for free. When you compare this approach to major reselling sites such as ebay and etsy, the absence of listing fees is a Godsend for new and existing sellers. Listing fees can really add up and eat into your profits over time. What zero listing fees on mercari means is that you do not owe the platform any money unless you make a sale. However, as mentioned before, some other fees are taken off for your use of the platform. You do not want to be shocked at the amount of money you’ll receive at the end of a sale so read on to know precisely what Mercari is charging you for.
Mercari Selling Fees & Payment Processing Fees
There is a $.30 charge per sale plus 12.9% of the sale price. This 12.9% is broken down into two parts: Mercaris selling fee (10%) and a payment processing fee (2.9%+ $0.03). The money is automatically taken out of the sale when the transaction goes through, this is a very welcome feature for any seller who was used to getting eBay’s lump sum fee invoice. This approach of deducting the fee automatically per sale means that the money you receive will be lower than the listing price the customer bought the item for.
Mercari’s Selling Fee
This fee is charged to the customer as a price of using the platform. Mercari is a business that needs a way to make revenue, and this is exactly how they do it. The fee is taken off the listing price. For example, if your sunglasses sell for $50.00, the selling fee that will be subtracted would be $5.
Payment Processing Fee
This 2.9% of the sale total + $0.03 goes towards the fees associated with the financial transactions. Unfortunately, Mercari takes a cut from the seller’s sale to pay for it. However, it pays for your money transfer from the platform to your bank account. Unless you want to make an automatic transfer. In that case, there is a $2 flat fee for your earnings to be instantly transferred to your bank account.
Many other marketplace platforms take a flat fee of 20% off each sale and/or charge a listing price. Therefore, Mercari’s rates are very competitive and reasonable compared to its competitors. To understand the fees of other marketplaces, have a look at our fee guides:
Shipping Fees
When you set up your listing, you will choose the shipping method and how much to charge. Sellers can choose to use UPS or FedEx. USPS provides flat rate boxes, or you’ll have to provide your own for FedEx. You can choose to charge your buyers the total shipping amount or absorb the shipping costs by offering discounted or free shipping.
It is important to note that, unlike many other marketplace platforms. Mercari does not charge you a service fee on your shipping price. This is great because it allows you to choose the best shipping option for your business. Not what will save you the most on fees.
Once the item is sold, you can package the item and use the shipping method selected. Mercari will send you a pre-paid label from the carrier you chose when listing the item. Then you can arrange a courier to pick up the item at your house or drop it off at the nearest post office.
How to deal with fees on Mercari
Fees are unavoidable! if you aren’t a fan of them, here are some ways to deal with them:
Create a pricing strategy
Pricing! Pricing! Pricing!
This is the sure-fire way to make sure that you are running a profitable shop on Mercari! We’ve written a lot on this in our mercari tips article.
The price you set your listing out should take into account several things:
- The sourcing costs (COGS) – You should make sure you are earning a decent profit by selling your listing for more than the costs associated with the listing (how much it cost to source the item, the cost of shipping materials etc.)
- The mercari fees – You can use a mercari fee calculator to analyze what the best listing price is, the calculator will show you the potential profit as well as calculate the fees for you.
- Potential discounts – If you plan on using promotional features such as mercari’s smart pricing or the offers feature, then you need to also consider this in your listing price. If you discount without considering this then you may be running your business at a loss. Running at a loss is not what we are here for folks!
Sell on more marketplaces
This is the best hack for dealing with fees on Mercari. It’s natural to look at the fees you pay to the marketplace and want to close up shop altogether. However, a better strategy is to sell on other marketplaces.
You can use our crosslisting app for free to automatically list your mercari inventory to other marketplaces. Crosslisting done manually can take forever, which is why many sellers don’t do it. With our tool you can turn hours spent listing into minutes!
Don’t get left out, start crosslisting today for free: here