"Mercari" App Competes with eBay to Create Safe Space to Buy & Sell Goods
Mercari is an app that allows consumers to buy and sell good
through your smartphone. It's basically an alternative to eBay, creating a safe and reliable platform for people to sell stuff they don't need anymore. Mercari's CMO Scott Levitan sits down with Alyssa Julya Smith in Los Angeles to talk about how the app is setting itself apart from all the competition.
Levitan says the company has created a safe space that makes sure purchases are paid before they are sent out to help minimize fraud on the site. In December, Mercari surpassed 100 million downloads worldwide and the app is pushing its expansion even further into the US, after the Asian company has dominated much of that market.
The app also eliminates the need to meet face-to-face and creates a safe space to buy/sell, making it a safer choice than sites like Craigslist. Buyers simply search, swipe and tap to purchase, and sellers can post their listing in under a minute.
Accessible travel startup Wheel the World recently raised $6 million in a pre-Series A funding round. Alvaro Silberstein, CEO and co-founder of Wheel the World, joined Cheddar News to explain his company's mission to help people with disabilities and their families have access to travel.
Last year, the minivan only made up 1.8% of auto sales but more and more people are interested in purchasing the comfortable, multi-seater. Cheddar News looks back at the evolution and history of the minivan.
Americans said credit was harder to access last month, according to a survey from the New York branch of the Federal Reserve. The March Survey of Consumer Expectations found that “respondents were more pessimistic about future credit availability as well, with the share of households expecting it will be harder to obtain credit a year from now also rising.”
Wall Street drifted through a muted day of trading Tuesday, with stocks and bonds making modest moves ahead of reports later in the week with the potential to move markets.