Online sellers must brace themselves for another shipping rate hike in 3 months. The USPS published its rate request for new "Market Dominant" rates on April 9 to take effect in July, when the price of a stamp is set to rise by 5 cents from 68 cents to 73 cents - an increase of 7.4%, and Media Mail rates will increase by an average of 9.867%.

Today's announcement only covers Market Dominant rates, which do not include several services popular with small online sellers such as Priority Mail and USPS Ground Advantage.

Typically the USPS follows up its request for ... Read More

Etsy sellers are wondering if buyers are as turned off as they are with a new feature Etsy rolled out nearly 3 weeks ago. Etsy began displaying a popup box as visitors click on listings. It displays a thumbnail image of the most recent item they favorited along with a sales pitch.

"I tried unfavoriting the item and then it started showing the next item in my favorites list," a seller wrote on March 19th. "It's driving me batty."

We favorited an item on Etsy this morning (April 6) and then went perusing listings. Sure enough, when we went into a listing, a ... Read More

Mercari upended the concept of marketplace fees last week by announcing it would no longer charge selling fees. Buyers and sellers are still discussing the ramifications 9 days later, but Mercari itself says it's satisfied with its decision.

Beginning March 27th, it's free to list items on Mercari, and there's no commission when there's a sale. Instead, buyers pay fees, something almost unheard of in ecommerce. 

We asked the company if it has seen any changes in the number of listings, sales, and number of sellers listing items. Mercari's spokesperson told us today, "It's too early to share specifics but what I can ... Read More

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