Mercarivs
Poshmark
Poshmark: If you are selling mainly clothing and want a marketplace with a large social and styling community
Mercari
Japan-founded peer-to-peer resale marketplace with a flat seller commission
As of 1 September 2026, Mercari is free to use. A general resale marketplace, strongest in Japan and the US, where sellers list almost anything secondhand and pay a flat commission on the sale price. Softwr lists it under E-Commerce. Mercari is made by Mercari, Inc., available on iOS, Android, Web.
Overview
What Mercari does
Mercari is a peer-to-peer marketplace for secondhand goods across clothing, electronics, home items and general merchandise, originally launched in Japan and expanded to the United States as a separate operating entity. Sellers photograph and list an item, set a price, and ship it themselves once sold, using Mercari-generated shipping labels in supported categories; buyers pay the listed price plus shipping unless the seller has built shipping into the price. The fee structure is the product here. Mercari charges sellers a flat 10 percent selling fee on the final sale price in the US (Japan's rate has varied and is set separately), taken out of the payout rather than added to what the buyer pays, plus a separate payment processing fee. That is simpler than Poshmark's tiered structure and different from Vinted's buyer-side protection fee model, which matters because it changes who effectively bears the platform cost: on Mercari and Poshmark the seller absorbs it in their net proceeds, while on Vinted the buyer sees it added at checkout. Buyers are casual resellers clearing out belongings and bargain shoppers, and the trade-off for a seller is that the flat commission is predictable but leaves no low-price exemption the way Poshmark's under-15-dollar tier does, so selling very cheap items nets proportionally less after fees and shipping costs are accounted for.
What people use it for
- Someone clearing out a wide mix of household items, not just clothing, in one listing app
- A casual seller who wants a flat, predictable commission rather than a tiered fee structure
- A buyer looking for secondhand electronics or general goods alongside apparel
- A seller using local pickup to avoid shipping costs on bulky items
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Mercari.
- The flat 10 percent commission plus payment processing fees applies even to very low-value items, so selling something for a few dollars can leave the seller with proportionally little after fees and packaging.
- Shipping is the seller's responsibility to arrange and package correctly, and disputes over item condition or damage in transit are common friction points in buyer-seller resolution.
- Instant payout carries its own fee on top of the selling and processing fees already deducted, so getting money out quickly costs more than waiting for standard transfer.
- Buyer protection and authenticity verification are limited outside the specific luxury authentication programme, so counterfeit risk on unverified categories rests largely on buyer judgement of listing photos and seller ratings.
- Market depth and typical sale prices vary significantly between the Japan and US versions of the app, and the two operate as largely separate marketplaces despite the shared brand.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Mercari
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MercarivsDepop
Depop: If your inventory is fashion-focused and skews toward a younger, trend-driven buyer base
- MercarivsVinted
Vinted: If you want a marketplace where the platform fee is charged to the buyer rather than deducted from the seller payout
Pricing
What Mercari costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Selling
Free
- 10 percent selling fee on final sale price
- Separate payment processing fee, roughly 2.9 percent plus a fixed amount
- Instant payout carries an additional fee versus standard bank transfer
Capabilities
Features
Flat seller commission
10 percent selling fee on the final sale price in the US, taken from payout
Prepaid shipping labels
Mercari-generated labels for supported carriers and package sizes
Local pickup and offers
In-person meetup option and buyer-initiated price offers in some categories
Smart pricing and price drops
Automated periodic price reductions within a seller-set floor
Mercari authenticity guarantee
Verification service for select luxury items above a threshold value
Instant or standard payout
Payout to a bank account or debit card, with a fee for instant transfer
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
How much does Mercari charge sellers?
A flat 10 percent selling fee on the final sale price in the US, plus a separate payment processing fee, both deducted from the seller payout.
Does the buyer pay any extra platform fee?
No separate platform fee is added at buyer checkout the way Vinted adds a buyer protection fee; the buyer pays the listed price plus shipping if not included.
Is Mercari the same marketplace in Japan and the US?
No, they operate as separate marketplaces under the same brand, with different inventory, pricing and fee history.
Keep looking
Where to go from Mercari
- Mercari alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Mercari pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Mercari badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All E-Commerce softwareThe full category
- Best E-Commerce softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best E-Commerce software for
Compare Mercari with
- Vinted
- Depop
- Poshmark
- Temu
- Instacart
- Amazon Shopping
- Shein
- Wish
- eBay
- Algopix
- Etsy
- Gumroad
- Drip
- Ecwid
- Inventory Lab
- KORONA POS
- Etsy
- Gumroad
Other E-Commerce software
Lithuania-founded secondhand fashion marketplace that charges the buyer, not the seller, a platform fee
Free plan11 researched notesFashion resale marketplace popular with younger sellers, owned by Etsy, with a per-item plus percentage fee
Free plan11 researched notesSocial resale marketplace with a flat fee on low-value sales and a percentage cut above that
Free plan11 researched notesUltra-low-cost general merchandise marketplace owned by PDD Holdings, parent of Pinduoduo
Free plan10 researched notesUS and Canada grocery delivery and pickup marketplace with a paid membership tier
Free plan10 researched notesAmazon's consumer marketplace app for browsing, buying and tracking orders
Free plan11 researched notesUltra-fast-fashion e-commerce app shipping low-cost apparel direct from Chinese manufacturers
Free plan10 researched notesDiscount marketplace connecting buyers to low-cost goods from mostly Chinese sellers, now owned by Qoo10
Free plan10 researched notes- E
eBay
Global marketplace where sellers list into eBay's audience under eBay's fee schedule and rules
13 researched notes Market research tool that estimates demand, competition and margin for products across marketplaces
Free plan13 researched notesHosted storefront for selling digital products, memberships and courses on a per sale fee
14 researched notesEcommerce email marketing and automation priced purely on contact count
From $39/mo12 researched notesHosted storefront for selling digital products, memberships and courses on a per sale fee
14 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Mercari, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Mercari
Mercari alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Mercari pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Mercari
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Mercari badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best E-Commerce software alternatives
Social resale marketplace with a flat fee on low-value sales and a percentage cut above that
Free to list; tiered seller commission by sale priceUltra-fast-fashion e-commerce app shipping low-cost apparel direct from Chinese manufacturers
Free to browse and use; pay per order, optional paid loyalty tierLithuania-founded secondhand fashion marketplace that charges the buyer, not the seller, a platform fee
Free for sellers, no commission; buyer pays a variable Buyer Protection fee at checkoutAmazon's consumer marketplace app for browsing, buying and tracking orders
Free to use; optional Prime subscription for fast shipping and bundled mediaUltra-low-cost general merchandise marketplace owned by PDD Holdings, parent of Pinduoduo
Free to browse and use; pay per order, heavy promotional discountingUS and Canada grocery delivery and pickup marketplace with a paid membership tier
Free to download; item markups plus delivery and service fees per order, optional subscriptionFashion resale marketplace popular with younger sellers, owned by Etsy, with a per-item plus percentage fee
Free to list; percentage plus per-order seller fee, separate payment processing fee