How to Use Mercari Marketplace without a Phone Number

Mercari is an international trading platform created in Japan in 2013. The app is characterized by its simple and accessible policy, with no strict restrictions on buying and selling. The only prohibition is non-brand clothing and shoes. But all other product categories are quite diverse.

It’s a flea market with international shipments (varies by seller), but using Mercari in some regions is uncomfortable. It’s successful in Japan, East Asia, the United States, etc. In Europe, its features are limited as bigger, older providers offer better service. It is a convenient, versatile platform that requires a phone number to join.

Mercari Benefits & Features

So, what is Mercari feature-wise? It’s an app with countless categories of user-sold goods. Clothing, shoes, accessories, books, toys, electronics – all non-spoiling products that can be painlessly shipped. Becoming a seller isn’t hard, either. Any person can create a listing, basically.

A Mercari account is necessary to view or place listings, which needs certain information. The registration process is quick, which simplifies the experience greatly. The shopping process itself is comfortable, nuanced yet simple. The Mercari app is a handy, effective shopping tool.

Mercari has an organized catalog with many categories and sorting options. This gives you the opportunity to find the most suitable thing for your parameters. Quality disputes are possible, but users are allowed to communicate in person. Moreover, if the quality of the product upon arrival is lower than expected, the support team can penalize the seller.

The Mercari marketplace offers user-friendly grounds for buying/selling goods, decent client support, messaging features, and payments. They don’t sell or ship products themselves. The shipping is done by sellers using a service of choice. Hence, international shipping may be unavailable.

The main advantages of the marketplace are:

• Simplicity. The user experience is simple and streamlined.
• Accessibility. Anyone can buy or sell.
• Shipping. Sellers can ship using a chosen service or entrust shipping to buyers.
• Communication. Users can exchange messages to verify quality, shipment details, or other nuances.

The Mercari registration process

Is it possible to buy on Mercari without an account? No, it is not possible without an account. To register, you need to enter your email, name and password. The system will then ask for your phone number, which you will need to confirm via SMS. It’s hard to sign up without it, and passing on a private number is a privacy risk.

Mercari only needs phone info for security measures, meaning nothing important depends on such data. Sharing a personal number is unnecessary. Users can submit any phone number, even unused spare ones. Doing so for app registration is smart, doing the same job without any downsides.

The Mercari marketplace isn’t known as a big privacy violator, but not sharing private info with apps and companies is wise overall. Marketplaces can potentially sell or abuse such data for gain. In short, there’s little reason not to tie an account to a spare non-personal phone number.

Some measures that allow this bypassing of rules include buying extra SIM cards or virtual numbers. Virtual numbers might be the best option if you want to register on Mercari without a phone number, or at least without sharing a private number. They are convenient, cheap, and effective.

Registering on Mercari with a Virtual Number

Virtual numbers are a curious piece of tech, similar to regular numbers in many ways, besides their connection to hardware. It’s pure online data, purchased for receiving one-time messages or rented for longer.

SMS-man is a platform providing virtual phone numbers and more than 190 different countries, which can be used for registration on various sites, applications and other resources where activation by SMS is required for registration.

Here’s how to buy a virtual number to receive SMS messages:

1. Sign up for the SMS-man platform using your email address;
2. Go to the “Top up my balance” page and make a deposit using the available method;
3. Select on the main page the country of the mobile operator and the Mercari service;
4. Click “Buy” next to the selected service to add a virtual number;
5. Find it and copy it from the “History” section. Then use it when registering in the marketplace;
6. Wait until the system will send you a confirmation code. Then go back to SMS-man and click ” Receive SMS;
7. To complete your registration, enter the code you received.