Japan is famous for its second-hand stores with high-quality products at good prices. To facilitate buying and selling, there is a platform called Mercari perfect for those looking for a bargain.
Mercari is a Japanese marketplace that allows users to buy and sell items directly from their smartphones. The app is similar to other popular marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, but with some important differences.
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Table of Contents
About Mercari
Mercari is a Japanese e-commerce company based in Tokyo founded in 2013. By March 2018, the app had been downloaded over 10 million times.
The company also has offices in the United States and is undergoing international expansion. Its success outside Japan is so great that we have over a million monthly searches just from the United States.
The company’s mission is to make selling easy for everyone and empower people to earn extra income. Mercari has become popular among Japanese women, who use the app to sell clothes, accessories, and other items they no longer need.
Advantages of Mercari
Mercari allows users to buy and sell items through its website and mobile app. It offers a wide range of items, including clothing, books, electronics, and furniture.
Used products can be classified into up to 6 types of quality, from best to worst. You can see all the details of the product, location, condition, size, delivery, and more.
It is very popular among users looking to make good deals with their used items, as well as among those who want to sell something used.
Mercari takes a commission of 2.9% plus $0.30 on each sale, and depending on the situation, offers free shipping options. The company does not charge anything to list used products other than the fee.
Mercari has been growing in popularity in recent years, partly due to its ease of use and its wide range of items. Its popularity is also reaching the UK and Australia.
Mercari vs eBay
The advantage of Mercari is its ease of use. eBay tends to be more complicated to use and also focuses heavily on auctions. Mercari is focused on buying and selling used products.
The biggest disadvantage between Mercari and eBay is the high competition among sellers. The fee that eBay charges is also steep, reaching 15%, which makes product prices on eBay higher than on Mercari.
eBay, being an internationally famous platform, may make it easier to sell items or find a specific item. But it is always good to check different marketplaces to avoid any regrets.
Is Mercari Safe? Legitimate?
The main goal of Mercari is to provide its users with a safe environment to trade securely. Payment is also held on the platform, so every transaction is trustworthy.
If an item received is not as described, the buyer can request a refund within 3 days of receiving the item.
The platform tries to protect users against fraud, but like any online marketplace, it is possible to be scammed if you are not careful.
The main way to protect yourself is to avoid making payments outside the platform. So, avoid making any payments directly to the seller, even for shipping.
A very common practice is to sell a product well below market price but charging a steep shipping fee directly to the customer. Never make any payments outside the platform.
Do not even share your email. Be careful as some may use fake emails to deceive buyers. Just because the platform is Japanese does not mean its users are honest. Japan is famous for its fraud crimes.
Also read: The honesty of the Japanese
Can I buy from Mercari Japan while living in another country?
Mercari works a lot with locality, so the products that will be presented to you are generally nearby, from the same City, State, or Country.
If you live in another country but want to use Mercari to buy something from Japan, you will need a package forwarding service. There are services focused on this like whiterabbitexpress.
When hiring a forwarding service, the purchase will be made by a third party in Japan, who will be responsible for sending the product to you through some postal service.
Despite all the work, it can be very worthwhile to use Mercari, due to the possibility of buying products that we would not find in any other Japanese store.
Also read: Precautions an Otaku needs to take when buying online
Mercari Vocabulary in Japanese
If you are in Japan and want to buy and sell on Mercari, you can change the website’s language, but if you want to use it in Japanese to improve your language skills, we will leave a list of words that will help you navigate and understand the site.
- キーワードを追加する (Kīwādo o tsuika suru): Add keyword;
- カテゴリーを選択する (Kategorī o sentaku suru): Choose category;
- ブランド名から探す (Burando-mei kara sagasu): Search by brand name;
- サイズを指定する (Saizu o shitei suru): Choose size (e.g., clothing);
- 価格 (Kakaku): Product price;
- 商品の状態 (Shōhin no jōtai): Product condition.
- 配送料の負担 (Haisō-ryō no futan): Shipping costs;
- (着払い) “Payment on delivery”;
- (送料込み). “Shipping included”;
- 販売状況 (Hanbai jōkyō): Sale status;
- 出品者 (Shuppinsha) : Seller (Name, ID, Nickname).
- カテゴリー (Kategori) : Product category;
- ブランド (Burando) : Product brand.
- 商品のサイズ (Shōhin no Saizu) : Product size.
- 商品の状態 (Shōhin no jōtai) : Product condition.
- 配送の方法 (Haisō no hōhō) : Shipping method.
- 配送元地域 (Haisō moto chiiki) : Shipping area (source location).
- 発送日の目安 (Hassō-bi no meyasu) : Estimated shipping date.
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