"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.
Stocks sank on Wall Street after the head of the Federal Reserve warned it could speed up its economy-rattling hikes to interest rates if pressure stays high on inflation.
If measures of the U.S. economy keep coming in hot, as they did in January, the Federal Reserve will likely have to raise interest rates even higher than it has already signaled — and keep them there longer — Chair Jerome Powell will likely warn in testimony to Congress on Tuesday.
The makers of Toblerone are stripping images of Switzerland's famed Matterhorn and the Swiss flag from the packaging of the milk-chocolate treat as they move some production to Slovakia.
