Mercari told news service Nikkei it has no plans to withdraw from the US market after it confirmed layoffs in the US. Nikkei reported that the Japan-based company laid off nearly half of the employees at its US subsidiary.
Mercari’s US online marketplace is struggling with “falling sales and competition from low-price Chinese e-commerce rivals like Temu,” Nikkei reported.
Mercari had caused a stir in March when it announced it was restructuring its fees, eliminating all selling fees (except a fee for withdrawing funds) and shifting fees to buyers. Mercari told Nikkei that, “at least in the short term, there have not been sufficient results.”
As we reported on Friday, Etsy’s Depop marketplace also shifted fees from sellers to buyers, except for payment-processing fees which sellers will have to pay.
In theory, shifting fees from sellers to buyers would induce sellers to lower their prices, but it’s unclear if buyers and sellers will find pricing equilibrium, or if buyers will be permanently turned off by the concept of paying marketplace fees.
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