Mercari is the biggest Japanese peer-to-peer marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers in seconds. Sellers can simply list their item by taking a photo and adding a few details. After selling an item, the app helps you easily print out shipping labels and quickly drop packages in the mail.

The Challenge

Mercari is a community-based mobile shopping app based in Japan. Having successfully proven their model in Japan, Mercari looked for a partner who could help them simplify the shipping process as they expanded into the United States.

Since Mercari is mobile-only and users are not well-versed in shipping, Mercari needs shipping to be as easy and frictionless as possible for their users. They have been able to reduce complexity by offering pre-packaged shipping tiers and automating the entire process. To replicate this system in the US, Mercari needed a shipping partner with the flexibility and power to help them automate, and they found Shippo.

• International expansion from Japan to the United States
• Mobile only marketplace with inexperienced shippers. The shipping experience needs to be truly frictionless
• Already proven shipping tier system with Japanese users, looked for a US shipping partner to help them replicate the same process

The Solution

Mercari provides sellers a few flat fee shipping tiers based on weight. With this simple system, sellers don’t have to worry about measuring the exact dimensions and weight of their item, effectively eliminating most sources of errors in shipping.

Mercari leverages Shippo’s API to validate addresses, generate shipping labels, track shipments, and access discounted USPS rates all while keeping shipping costs low for both sellers and buyers. With the architecture of the shipping workflow already in mind, it only took one week for Mercari to fully integrate with Shippo and start shipping.

The Results

Mercari and Shippo have been working together for over two years. During this time, Mercari has been able to focus on acquiring new customers while Shippo handled shipping.

As part of a routine exercise to assess how their users are shipping orders, Mercari is able to pull detailed shipping reports directly from Shippo’s API. Shippo has also been able to support Mercari by providing them with benchmarks on how their shipments compare to industry standards.

• Shippo continues to offer Mercari some of the best USPS discounts in the industry to keep their shipping rates low for end customers
• Mercari is able to pull detailed reports on how their users ship and request industry benchmark data from Shippo