Sellers are discovering that Etsy is putting some legitimate buyer messages into their spam folders where they languish unread. A reader alerted us to the problem after they saw a post in a private Facebook group yesterday that advised sellers to check their spam folders. The Facebook poster said she had been waiting for a reply from a buyer and happened to notice there was a message in her Spam folder - it was the message she had been waiting for from her buyer.

The timing of the Facebook post was fortuitous - the reader said they happened to have messaged ... Read More

Theo Wayt and Ann Gehan of The Information are out with another important story involving ecommerce. The article claims that online marketplaces Shein and Temu are serving as an example to other sellers who are adopting their practice of storing product meant for US consumers in warehouses in Mexico. That lets sellers ship items individually from Mexico to the US so they're under the "de minimis" threshold. 

The de minimis threshold is the amount a citizen can import from abroad without having to pay duties. Higher de minimis thresholds mean consumers can avoid paying duties, an advantage normally reserved ... Read More

Mercari is eliminating selling fees immediately, even as the costs of selling on other marketplaces continue to rise, but there are some caveats for sellers. The marketplace is introducing buyer fees, and it's instituting a very buyer-friendly returns policy, explaining in an announcement going out today:

"In addition to zero selling fees, Mercari is simplifying the buying experience with an all-new returns policy. As part of this policy shift, buyers will be charged a service fee allowing for hassle-free returns. For the first time ever, Mercari shoppers can now initiate a return within three days ... Read More

Online sellers hate change, but an Etsy engineer said out loud what many sellers suspected about marketplaces: product teams cannot resist tinkering with listing pages.

In a post on the Etsy Code Is Craft blog about the listing screen on the Buy on Etsy Android app, Etsy engineer John Kalmi wrote: "As information-rich as it is, as central as it is to the buying experience, for product teams the listing screen is an irresistible place to test out new methods and approaches."

In fact, Kalmi said the company has run nearly 200 "experiments" in the past 3 years on its Android mobile ... Read More

It's free to sell on Facebook Marketplace for local drop-off and pickup, but sellers pay a 5% fee for sales made with the delivery and checkout option. A seller shared the text of a notification they received from Facebook that says the site is doubling the fees to 10% on April 15, 2024, and raising the minimum fee from 40 cents to 80 cents, though it will continue to offer the free option for items sold through local pickup.

Here's the text of the message the reader said they received today: