While I would love to pretend that I’m a lifestyle lolita and wear EGL fashion all the time, the truth is I need boring work clothes more than I need more frills. So in the last week or two as I was browsing Mercari US looking for some items for my work wardrobe, I stumbled across a feature I’d never seen before. Mercari US’s filters now allow you to sort by “Origin” which currently has options for “All”, “US” and “Japan”. My research suggests that this change happened around July 10, 2024. It seems that Mercari is trying even harder to bridge that gap between it’s Japanese users and it’s American users.
How it works
The way it works is this: Japanese sellers have the option to sell to international buyers when they make their listing. These items are listed on Mercari JP, as well as Mercari US through a seller called BEENOS (a subsidiary of Tenso, which also owns Buyee). BEENOS handles any inquiries about the item, as well as shipping logistics. When an item sells, the Japanese vendor sends the item to a domestic warehouse, where it is packaged and shipped to it’s international buyers.
From Mercari’s perspective, this makes sense. The yen is particularly weak against the US dollar right now, making it’s American users a particularly enticing market. Obviously they’ve been interesting in trying something similar before by integrating Buyee directly into the Mercari JP interface, allowing international buyers an easy way to purchase from their website.
Stacking up services
Obviously, fans of alternative j-fashion have been shopping on the Japanese second hand market for many years with the help of shopping or proxy services like Buyee, From Japan, and others. So how does this new service with BEENOS stack up in terms of selection, ease of use, and price? Let’s crunch some numbers.
Selection
As of now, you can only access items with origin “Japan” when there are actually items for sale. For example, searching Vivienne Westwood brings up hundreds of listings, but a search for athletic clothes doesn’t bring up anything. I’m not sure if the selection is limited on purpose or because Japanese sellers aren’t confident in the service yet, but the items available aren’t very appealing right now. There are very few items from lolita fashion brands like Baby or AP, making this service sort of useless for me.
Ease of Use
In terms of ease of use, it’s easier than using a shopping service other than Buyee, since both BEENOS and Buyee anre built into their respective Mercari platforms. That being said, I’m not particularly intimidated by using a shopping service, so this isn’t a big selling point.
Price
Finally, in terms of price, there is no comparison. At every turn, Mercari US’s BEENOS listings are astronomically higher than their Japanese counterparts. As an example, this Vivienne Westwood purse appears to be exactly the same on both sites.
I can’t tell if it is actually the same seller, but I strongly suspect it is. The price is pretty close, but the Mercari US site has it listed for approximately $30 more. Mercari US has shipping built into the listing at a reasonable $28. However, whereas Buyee’s fees would be approximately 8 yen or $5USD, Mercari US has a staggering $51 in fees.
That’s 10x the price shopping on Mercari JP, even with a shopping service! For this price, there is absolutely no way I would use this service. I know how to use a shopping service, which in this case would save me about $45.
Shopping Service Savvy
Its hard to say who this new feature will benefit. Are they hoping to trick American buyers into accidentally purchasing a Japanese listing for an item they want? Are they hoping to entice new fans of Japanese goods with an easy way to shop? It seems difficult for me to believe that someone who knows what they’re looking for would use Mercari US would search for Japanese items this way. Since this feature seems brand new, I know I’ll be observing closely to see how it evolves.