Warning: Some swearing

I cannot believe I am wasting time writing a long-winded blog post about Carousell, but here I am. It's been a love-hate relationship so far, but what I experienced today was the final straw. So I decided to write about it, and leave some tips for everyone to navigate this shopping jungle.

Firstly, my name is Felicia, and I have been dealing on Carousell for more then a year now. You can check me out here: www.carousell.com/rosace

I have about 150+ positive feedbacks so far (both as a seller and a buyer), so if I do say so myself, I am an experienced Carouseller. After spending so much time on the website, I have met many pleasant buyers who were really nice and friendly, so kudos to all of you lovely people! Each and every one of you made my life as a Carouseller a positive one. I love you all. Please don't ever stop being the nice person you are. :)

The best benefit of Carousell is to earn some small change on the side, aside from your regular income/pocket money. I am sure you have many things in your house which you don't want anymore, and you can easily list it on Carousell. In my experience, your unwanted "junk" sells out pretty fast. It's a quick and easy way to earn some cold hard cash.

However, due to the nature of Carousell (mainly the lack of regulation of its users), it attracts a certain breed of people. The kind of annoying, piece-of-shit fuckers who don't give a damn about respect. They think they are so entitled to everything that they demand certain things for their own benefit. These people are rude, arrogant, and downright suckers (because they suck the happiness out of you). I can list many incidents where I was screwed over by these people. Unfortunately, the nasty taste stays with you, and all you can do is to bite your tongue and get over it.

So here it is, my very own guide to protect yourself from people like this. It's by no means the best guide out there, or would you agree with whatever I say, at the end of the day, I hope this guide will enlighten you and help you sell like a pro on Carousell!

Felicia's Guide to Carousell for Sellers:

#1. Meetup only at your place of convenience

Never EVER go to the buyer's convenience, even if it's one mrt stop away from your place. Do state in your item description that you will ONLY deal at places near your house. The main reason why you must do this is to prevent people who back-out or change the meeting time. I cannot emphasize this enough - god knows how many times I actually went to the buyer's convenience before I realized my mistake. Imagine this: You and a buyer agreed on the meetup place and time, but what if they backed out at the last minute? Or they changed the meeting time? At least you can brush it off because you had nothing to lose in the first place if the meetup place is near your house. If the buyer insists on meeting up somewhere else even after you explain your stance, block them! They are assholes who don't respect you, so they don't deserve your time anyway. And one final tip for this section, to make sure people don't come late, kindly prompt them to be punctual before meetup. :)

Protip: Always make sure the buyer leaves an offer and you accept it so you can leave a negative review should they not show up as promised. DO NOT hesitate to leave a negative feedback if the buyer is definitely at fault. Should the buyer leave a revenge feedback, you can email support@carousell.com with the title 'Unfair negative feedback' and they will review the situation accordingly. The Carousell team knows what they are doing and will usually reply in the same day. Additionally, do ask them to undo the offer so the buyer can't keep leaving a revenge feedback over and over.
Protip #2: Bring lots of change. There are many buyers who bring big notes, and you have to go to convenience stores looking silly to try to get the right change.


#2. Put free mailing as often as possible

If you're the type of person who hate meetups like me, one extremely good way to dissuade people from getting meetups is to include free mailing for all your items. The general rule when pricing your items is to set a base price, then add on the mailing fee. The total will be your selling price. It's very, very effective. Ever since I included free mailing for my items, majority of my sales are by mail. Of course, I still offer meetups for people who need something urgently or stay near my area. It's your prerogative if you want to do this.

Protip: Leave a return address at the back of the parcel. I had one case where the item bounced back to my house because the stamps fell off! Luckily, I always put my return address should this happen, or else my customer would have had a lost mail. (Also, tape your stamps down properly.)


#3 If you are sick of people asking for negotiations 
Some people think Carousell is a flea market, where you can haggle EVERYTHING for lower prices. Understandably, this annoys many people, especially if you are selling something for the best price already.

How do you solve this?

If you don't want people to negotiate, just put 'NO nego or I will block you' right at the start of the item description. Do be as fierce as you can about this as this! It makes sure people will read it. After doing this, the rate of negotiations I got went down faster then you can say 'Hello? Still available?'

If people still beg for lower prices using all sorts of excuses (if you read carouhell.tumblr.com, you will know what I am talking about), take no pity and ignore them! It's imperative you shut them down before you regret it. As I said earlier, if people don't respect your rules, they don't deserve your respect.

Protip: In fact, put any important information you want people to read right at the start of the description. And with flashy emoticons to get people's attention. It's highly effective!


#4 Be as honest as possible

I am a buyer too, and I have been scammed before. It's really not a good feeling to get taken advantage off. There are many scammers out there who prey on people, especially with the age of the internet. Don't be like them!

Moving on, as a seller, try to reduce as many misunderstandings as possible - list down any measurements, material, defects, condition or any tiny detail of your item. Although it wastes a bit of time, taking real-life pictures is also good. If you are too lazy to, be prepared to be asked by buyers to take pictures. Remember, the more honest you are, the less anyone will complain after purchase.

Oh, and don't spam unrelated tags in your listings. It's annoying to everyone. I know it gets more eyeballs, but it won't get the right people to your listings.

Protip: Try to do quality checks before sending an item off. You may have missed something when listing it up for sale. If you discover a defect, tell the buyer immediately and apologize. If they had paid already, offer a refund. If they had not, ask them if they still want it. It pays to be honest! :)


#5 Trust your intuition

Sometimes, there are situations where a seller knows when to ignore someone. Call it experience or the 'sixth sense', but you can tell if someone is going to be trouble from the way they type their messages.

If the first thing they type is a one word message such as 'Black', or make an offer without saying anything else, or type childishly in general, run for your life and 'archive' the message immediately.

Nine out of ten times these kind of people are not serious about the deal or will give you a headache if you deal with them. Even though their feedback may all be positive, many people still leave a positive feedback for them in fear of a revenge feedback. You never really know the full story between each transaction.

Do trust your gut instinct: It's a survival mechanism for a reason.

Protip: Don't do reservations. Tell the buyer if the item is still there by the time they can purchase it, they can buy it. It saves you the pain of rejecting potential buyers. People who do reservations are usually insincere, backing out of the deal even after they have made an offer.


And with these 5 rules, I conclude my guide to Carousell for sellers.
Phew! That was a lot of write! I am sure there is a lot of grammar mistakes but what the heck haha! As long as you understand what I am saying, I am happy that I did my job.

Don't get bothered by people who keep asking 'Available?' or ask for pictures then MIA. It's a small thing really. Carousell is free for everyone, and it doesn't charge a commission for each sale. For this very reason, don't sweat it!

Do you have any more tips I have missed out? Leave it in the comments!
Stay safe, and Carousell on! :)

Labels: Carousell, do's and don'ts, guide, tips and tricks