OfferUp was a bit like the Buy/Sell function of Facebook, with people listing stuff locally for sale. It did something interesting, however, when it added Nationwide shipping. It wasn't meant to compete with eBay or Mercari, but you could find interesting stuff on OfferUp, and I even sold some random things on it, too. No more, however. OfferUp quickly ended Nationwide shipping with an announcement in September; any items listed on September 23rd could only be local, and then on October 21st, buyers couldn't even get anything shipped. It is a bummer, as I've sometimes found cool comics or other stuff on OfferUp from people who listed a neat item there.
OfferUp says the idea is for the company to focus on local selling...and yet most people use Nextdoor, the aforementioned Facebook, or even Craigslist, still. Having the mix of options was probably the one big selling point OfferUp had against competitors. This seems like a bad idea, but it most likely won't be reversed, with a lot of staff getting laid off just this month due to the transition to local-only.
Yep, ending the nationwide shipping was a very stupid idea, but worse we can no longer view anything listed outside of our areas. This greatly limits any searches for items and not being able to view items means potential buyers can’t even use PayPal to pay for shipping. The reasoning the company is giving sounds like corporate mumbo jumbo that actually means that OfferUp was not profitable, possibly even losing money, by offering shipping. The change more than likely has nothing to do with the kumbaya “community” explanation. I’ve purchased thousands of dollars worth of items from many people across the country greatly expanding my community. The corporate trend lately is firing people, under altruistic guises, when it’s literally about profit.
ReplyDeleteAll great points. I'd wonder if OfferUp's days are numbered, now, with such a change.
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