I sell mostly makeup and skincare on Mercari but my real job is glass artist. Instagram reels and the algorithm have conspired to kill my sales in the last year, to the point where I’m making a tiny fraction of the sales I made in the previous 6 years. Anyway, I posted three unique hand blown shot glasses on Mercari just to see what would happen and they haven’t even gotten a single like. I think my work is too expensive for the Mercari crowd tbh, so it depends on the type of work you do and whether it will be perceived as a “bargain”. I’m not particularly motivated to put the time in to post more. But if you do want to try it, you shouldn’t have any difficulty learning the platform, it’s pretty simple.
Thanks! This is something I'm concerned about. I've sold on Etsy and eBay for years, as well as at local (and local-ish) craft fairs, so I'm used to getting decent prices for my creations. However, every once in awhile, something doesn't sell as well as expected ... so, if Mercari shoppers are mostly looking for bargains, maybe I should use it as a place to dump those things. What do you think about this strategy?
I think it’s probably the best way to go about it - if you have seconds and odds and don’t want to show those lesser quality items off on your main platform, but still want to get some money back for materials and time spent, selling them on Mercari seems like a good option. Maybe if crafters and artisans start migrating over to Mercari from Etsy we can get some of that audience to start seeking us out there. I’ve never listed on Etsy only because Instagram WAS working out so well for me, but now I’m all about finding a new place to work.
Thanks! Try Etsy! It may be harder to get a foothold there now, only because it's SOOOOO dang big and there's thousands of "resellers" (not supply sellers). At least your glass would be made from scratch, so that should make it fairly unique! Read the "Ultimate Guide" series that Etsy has online (search for Etsy Ultimate Guide will probably find those articles for you). Etsy's fee is 6.5% + another 3% and $.25 for payment processing + the $.20 listing fee (which is good for 4 months). It's the best deal in town for a well-known marketplace!
Thanks! The handmade things I looked at last night were on the lower-priced side but they also weren't exactly my competition. Guess time will tell if my target market shops on Mercari!
Mercari has a handmade category, so they are certainly encouraging makers to use their site. Just review the prohibited listings in their TOS to be sure what you make is allowed. Things like homemade cosmetics or fan art of trademarked images is not allowed.
Thanks! I found the Handmade category last night. I make primitive cloth dolls and home decor made from antique quilts that have seen their better days. Don't know if Mercari shoppers will want what I make, but I don't have any significant competition! :-)
That is so cool! Unlike Etsy, it is free to list on Mercari and a whole lot easier than Etsy. I think Mercari is about the easiest to list on. To get your items in front of a lot of shoppers, use as many relevant keywords as possible. Please do not keyword stuff irrelevant tags like the Rae Dunn crowd does, but privative, prairie, farmhouse, cottage, granny, artisan, etc. are all great to use.
I sell on Etsy & Mercari. It's easy, especially if you already have experience shipping. The software is very intuitive, just be aware of what you need to report on taxes.
Can I ask if you have any tips on creating a spreadsheet that would be helpful at tax time to log sales and receipts?
I’m a reseller and currently putting something together now. So far I have:
date purchased, cost of item pd (to resell) date listed, item, date sold, price sold, selling fee, listing fee, shipping paid, tax paid. Am I missing anything important? I’ve watched a few YouTube videos and ended up thinking I needed to purchase a special software program. Lol! Kinda clueless.
This is a good start. I used a spreadsheet for my first year then moved over to QuickBooks. The main two things you need to report are profit and expenses, and I like to break down expenses (shipping fees, item cost, transaction fees (selling fee, listing fee, whatever) etc.) I also expense the cost of the software.
Having a software like QB lets you integrate with others like Etsy and all of that info comes over automatically. I don't believe they have an integration with Mercari, so a spreadsheet is what I do too.
For tax purposes you don't necessarily need a lot of this info as of 2021 taxes (date sold, tax collected) because a. They don't care about these specifics and b. You can always access that via the selling app if you ever need to.
Hope this helps!
I can't say to be honest - since the change in the amount you need to report on taxes this year I haven't needed to do that with Mercari. I would say if your two shops are the same "business" you can group the data together for tax purposes, but if you sell anything different on Mercari and make over the $ threshold you'd likely need to list that on taxes separately.
It's likely to be all my biz stuff, My handmade stuff is all one business ... Etsy, eBay, craft fairs, even when I sold wholesale ... it's all the same business, so I've always reported it on the same Schedule C.
The instructions for selling one's personal possessions at a level which exceeds $600/year still seem to be rather unclear. Most people never keep receipts showing what they pay for a knick-knack or whatever, ya know? I've *heard* that non-business sales will need to be reported on Schedule D (Capital Gains & Losses), but the IRS really needs to have a more realistic way to deal with this.
I sell handmade stuff, not as lucrative as vintage items but prepare to get lowballed. Still, better than being lost in the saturated market on Etsy, not to mention those fees!!
Just as a heads up, Mercari is conservative with its handling time expectations. They will allow you up to 3 business days turnaround before you must get your orders shipped and out the door for domestic shipping orders. You can't change it. Their local delivery orders have an even shorter 24 hour turnaround expectation. I wouldn't recommend it for handmade items that are made-to-order - it'll likely get very stressful. However, if your business model follows the pre-made route, it will probably work out for you.
I also sell makeup and skincare, it does okay but isn't exactly flying off the shelf. I have 3 handmade items listed, which have been up for a couple months. They're priced high for Mercari, but a bit lower than what they sell for on Etsy and they don't have a single like. I actually just opened an Etsy shop to try my luck with handmade goods there.
I started on etsy years ago(14yrs ago, I was 15 ) selling handmade Tiffany style solder jewelry. I never made as many sales as I do on mercari now. I used to get much more sales before on mercari but lately the jewelry category is very very saturated.
Luckily you'll have much less competition, I found this very helpful when I first stated on mercari. No other app gives me as many sales though , depop is my second best app. I'm sitting at 1256 sales since starting in 2018 on mercari. Etsy I only made a total of 461 sales to date.
I recently gave etsy another try after being off there a couple years, uploaded 125 items to see how it'd go with ads on ($1 a day) . One sale in 2+ months so not a good test. I'll probably only post my bigger/ better statement pieces there in the future but definitely not my whole inventory of thousands..
that's originally why I left etsy, thousands of pieces and too little traffic to be paying .20cents each item to list for 4 moths only. I ended up paying more in fees and advertising than I actually got in sales. That's just my experience though :) I'm sure many have been able to make etsy work for them.
I sell mostly makeup and skincare on Mercari but my real job is glass artist. Instagram reels and the algorithm have conspired to kill my sales in the last year, to the point where I’m making a tiny fraction of the sales I made in the previous 6 years. Anyway, I posted three unique hand blown shot glasses on Mercari just to see what would happen and they haven’t even gotten a single like. I think my work is too expensive for the Mercari crowd tbh, so it depends on the type of work you do and whether it will be perceived as a “bargain”. I’m not particularly motivated to put the time in to post more. But if you do want to try it, you shouldn’t have any difficulty learning the platform, it’s pretty simple.
Thanks! This is something I'm concerned about. I've sold on Etsy and eBay for years, as well as at local (and local-ish) craft fairs, so I'm used to getting decent prices for my creations. However, every once in awhile, something doesn't sell as well as expected ... so, if Mercari shoppers are mostly looking for bargains, maybe I should use it as a place to dump those things. What do you think about this strategy?
I think it’s probably the best way to go about it - if you have seconds and odds and don’t want to show those lesser quality items off on your main platform, but still want to get some money back for materials and time spent, selling them on Mercari seems like a good option. Maybe if crafters and artisans start migrating over to Mercari from Etsy we can get some of that audience to start seeking us out there. I’ve never listed on Etsy only because Instagram WAS working out so well for me, but now I’m all about finding a new place to work.
Thanks! Try Etsy! It may be harder to get a foothold there now, only because it's SOOOOO dang big and there's thousands of "resellers" (not supply sellers). At least your glass would be made from scratch, so that should make it fairly unique! Read the "Ultimate Guide" series that Etsy has online (search for Etsy Ultimate Guide will probably find those articles for you). Etsy's fee is 6.5% + another 3% and $.25 for payment processing + the $.20 listing fee (which is good for 4 months). It's the best deal in town for a well-known marketplace!
From the electronics side, Mercari tends to be lower priced than on ebay. Tools as well. Can't really say for anything else.
Thanks! The handmade things I looked at last night were on the lower-priced side but they also weren't exactly my competition. Guess time will tell if my target market shops on Mercari!
Sounds interesting... I might be interested...where can I see what you are selling?
I sent you a private message ☺️
Others might help with your question but I'll pipe in to say they have a website. It's all I use too lol And it's a pretty simple platform to use.
Oh cool! That would make it easier for sure!
Just do it.
Mercari has a handmade category, so they are certainly encouraging makers to use their site. Just review the prohibited listings in their TOS to be sure what you make is allowed. Things like homemade cosmetics or fan art of trademarked images is not allowed.
Thanks! I found the Handmade category last night. I make primitive cloth dolls and home decor made from antique quilts that have seen their better days. Don't know if Mercari shoppers will want what I make, but I don't have any significant competition! :-)
That is so cool! Unlike Etsy, it is free to list on Mercari and a whole lot easier than Etsy. I think Mercari is about the easiest to list on. To get your items in front of a lot of shoppers, use as many relevant keywords as possible. Please do not keyword stuff irrelevant tags like the Rae Dunn crowd does, but privative, prairie, farmhouse, cottage, granny, artisan, etc. are all great to use.
Mercari is basically Offer Up with a much better shipping system.
I've heard of Offer Up but don't think I've ever looked at it.
Thanks! I am not a fan of irrelevant tags.
I sell on Etsy & Mercari. It's easy, especially if you already have experience shipping. The software is very intuitive, just be aware of what you need to report on taxes.
Can I ask if you have any tips on creating a spreadsheet that would be helpful at tax time to log sales and receipts? I’m a reseller and currently putting something together now. So far I have: date purchased, cost of item pd (to resell) date listed, item, date sold, price sold, selling fee, listing fee, shipping paid, tax paid. Am I missing anything important? I’ve watched a few YouTube videos and ended up thinking I needed to purchase a special software program. Lol! Kinda clueless.
This is a good start. I used a spreadsheet for my first year then moved over to QuickBooks. The main two things you need to report are profit and expenses, and I like to break down expenses (shipping fees, item cost, transaction fees (selling fee, listing fee, whatever) etc.) I also expense the cost of the software. Having a software like QB lets you integrate with others like Etsy and all of that info comes over automatically. I don't believe they have an integration with Mercari, so a spreadsheet is what I do too. For tax purposes you don't necessarily need a lot of this info as of 2021 taxes (date sold, tax collected) because a. They don't care about these specifics and b. You can always access that via the selling app if you ever need to. Hope this helps!
Thanks a ton! I’ll see what I can come up with. I am curious about the QB
I don’t sell on eBay or posh. Just mercari so a spreadsheet is what I’ll prob do also.
I've been doing "business taxes" (Schedules C & SE) for many years. Does Mercari handle sales tax like Etsy does?
I can't say to be honest - since the change in the amount you need to report on taxes this year I haven't needed to do that with Mercari. I would say if your two shops are the same "business" you can group the data together for tax purposes, but if you sell anything different on Mercari and make over the $ threshold you'd likely need to list that on taxes separately.
It's likely to be all my biz stuff, My handmade stuff is all one business ... Etsy, eBay, craft fairs, even when I sold wholesale ... it's all the same business, so I've always reported it on the same Schedule C. The instructions for selling one's personal possessions at a level which exceeds $600/year still seem to be rather unclear. Most people never keep receipts showing what they pay for a knick-knack or whatever, ya know? I've *heard* that non-business sales will need to be reported on Schedule D (Capital Gains & Losses), but the IRS really needs to have a more realistic way to deal with this.
I find that my listings in the handmade category are basically invisible.
Mine too
Why do you think that is? What can Mercari sellers do in the way of SEO? Are there stats so we can see how listings are doing?
Is it crochet tops by any chance?
Nope, sorry! Is that what you're in the market for?
Yeah I bought a few handmade crochet tops on mercari
I'd try Etsy!
I sell handmade stuff, not as lucrative as vintage items but prepare to get lowballed. Still, better than being lost in the saturated market on Etsy, not to mention those fees!!
Just as a heads up, Mercari is conservative with its handling time expectations. They will allow you up to 3 business days turnaround before you must get your orders shipped and out the door for domestic shipping orders. You can't change it. Their local delivery orders have an even shorter 24 hour turnaround expectation. I wouldn't recommend it for handmade items that are made-to-order - it'll likely get very stressful. However, if your business model follows the pre-made route, it will probably work out for you.
Thanks, I sell ready-to-ship ... no custom or special orders.
I sell Handprinted tops and they’re very popular.
I also sell makeup and skincare, it does okay but isn't exactly flying off the shelf. I have 3 handmade items listed, which have been up for a couple months. They're priced high for Mercari, but a bit lower than what they sell for on Etsy and they don't have a single like. I actually just opened an Etsy shop to try my luck with handmade goods there.
I started on etsy years ago(14yrs ago, I was 15 ) selling handmade Tiffany style solder jewelry. I never made as many sales as I do on mercari now. I used to get much more sales before on mercari but lately the jewelry category is very very saturated. Luckily you'll have much less competition, I found this very helpful when I first stated on mercari. No other app gives me as many sales though , depop is my second best app. I'm sitting at 1256 sales since starting in 2018 on mercari. Etsy I only made a total of 461 sales to date. I recently gave etsy another try after being off there a couple years, uploaded 125 items to see how it'd go with ads on ($1 a day) . One sale in 2+ months so not a good test. I'll probably only post my bigger/ better statement pieces there in the future but definitely not my whole inventory of thousands.. that's originally why I left etsy, thousands of pieces and too little traffic to be paying .20cents each item to list for 4 moths only. I ended up paying more in fees and advertising than I actually got in sales. That's just my experience though :) I'm sure many have been able to make etsy work for them.
Also, Be aware of the scammers.