What is Mercari? Mercari Review, Features

Mercari is a well-known C2C second-hand trading platform in Japan, similar to Xianyu in China. Founded in 2013, Mercari has a C2C second-hand trading APP for smartphones. In addition, it also provides "KAURU" for books and CDs and "MAISONZ" service platforms for branded goods. Mercari expanded to the United States in 2014 and then successfully entered the United States. The app once ranked third in the US app download list.

About Mercari

Mercari was founded by Shintaro Yamada in 2013 and became Japan's first unicorn company in 2016. By the end of 2016, Mercari had been downloaded more than 35 million times in Japan and more than 20 million times in the United States. As of December 16, 2017, the Mercari app has been downloaded more than 100 million times worldwide.

Among the active users of Mercari platform, most are housewives, and Japanese users are mainly women aged 20 to 30. Users use Mercari to digest the most idle clothes. In addition, Mercari fully utilizes the natural advantage of rich SKUs in the C2C model, from luxury brands and 3C digital products to toothpaste and figurines, and basically everything can be found.

On May 14, 2018, the Tokyo Stock Exchange approved the listing of "Mercari" on the MOTHERS board, with the listing date being June 19.

Product form

Mercari's product form is essentially no different from the familiar Zhuan Zhuan and Xianyu: users are not divided into buyers and sellers, they all use the same App, can publish products easily and quickly, set prices, and then trade through payment methods such as credit cards, and logistics methods such as express companies.

Platform Registration

This registration explanation uses the US site as an example. Please note that users in mainland China need to use a US APP Store account to download the Mercari APP. In addition, a VPN is required when registering and logging in to Mercari.

1. Download the Mercari APP.

2. Register a Mercari account:

(1) Register Mercari via email.

(2) Register for Mercari through Facebook.

3. After successful registration, a $2 reward page will appear , which means that you share your invitation code with your friends. When they use this invitation code to register Mercari, both of you will receive a $2 reward.

Create a product

1. Click Sell to enter the product creation page.

2. Add product photos: You can select photos from the album or take photos immediately.

3. Fill in the product details: including product name, condition, product category, size, brand and price.

4. Choose logistics. There are two options: shipping by yourself or shipping on your behalf.

cost

Mercari platform charges a 10% sales fee.

Reasons for success

1. The unique awareness of local people about second-hand transactions: Japanese people have a strong awareness of environmental protection, sharing and other consumption concepts, and they often mention saving resources, so they are easily receptive to second-hand transactions. Jewelry, furniture, daily necessities, etc. can be seen everywhere on the streets of Japan. The Internet has only made the transaction of idle items that people are accustomed to more convenient.

2. Mature social credit system: The credit issues involved in second-hand transactions are of great concern to many users. Many people are reluctant to conduct second-hand transactions online because they cannot guarantee whether the items are what they see and whether the quality is guaranteed. Japan is a country with a very mature credit system, so there is no need to worry about this. Even if the items sold on Mercari are not genuine, the seller will mark them out, effectively reducing communication costs and risk costs for buyers, thereby improving the transaction efficiency of idle items.

3. "Poor" young Japanese: Young Japanese have very low purchasing power, and the Japanese economy has been shrinking since Abe came to power. Therefore, more people are willing to trade second-hand items. On the one hand, they can buy cheap second-hand goods with guaranteed quality, and on the other hand, they can sell their idle items to people in need.

4. Profit model is the key: What really makes Mercari profitable is its profit model. In Japan, it charges a transaction fee of 10%. Through this simple and crude profit model, the company has made millions of dollars in profit by the end of 2015, less than two years after its establishment.

5. Conquer the U.S. market with mobile phones: Initially, Mercari hoped to develop the market by sending Japanese employees to the United States, but soon realized that this would not work because the market was dominated by Yahoo Auctions and others. However, one big thing they had in common was that they focused their energy on big sellers and ignored some individual users. This gave Mercari an opportunity, so in order to seize this market, Mercari decided to develop mobile phone users. After successfully launching the mobile sales experience, the platform grew rapidly.

honor

-Rated as “Best Shopping App” by Google Play in 2013.

-Rated as "Best App" by Google Play in 2014 and 2015.

-Won the Google Play "Best Local App" award in 2016.

-Won the "Forbes Japan Startup of the Year Award" in 2014, 2015 and 2016 (inducted into the "Hall of Fame" in 2017).

-Won the "Emerging Leader Award" at the 2016 Japan-US Innovation Award Symposium.

Development History

- Mercari was founded in February 2013. Mercari received its first investment of $3 million just three weeks after its founding.

-In July 2013, apps were launched for iOS and Android devices.

-In 2014, Mercari opened an office in San Francisco in preparation for launching its app in the United States in September of the same year.

-In March 2014, Mercari received $14.5 million in Series B investment.

-In October 2014, it received US$21 million in Series C funding.

-In January 2016, Mercari opened their first European office in London. But in December 2018, Mercari announced that it would disband its European branch as a "temporary retreat."

-In March 2016, Japan’s C2C second-hand trading platform Mercari announced a $75 million Series D funding round.

-In February 2018, the company began to expand into other business areas, including providing the shared bicycle service "Merchari".

-On May 14, 2018, the Tokyo Stock Exchange approved the listing of "Mercari" on the MOTHERS board.

-On June 19, 2018, Japan's C2C second-hand goods trading platform Mercari was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the first time, becoming Japan's largest IPO that year. It eventually closed at 5,300 yen, up about 77% from the issue price.