Why is Mercari's C2C model successful?

What is Mercari?

Mercari is a well-known C2C second-hand trading platform in Japan, similar to Xianyu in my country. 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.

Reasons for Mercari’s 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, they had one big thing in common, which was that they focused their energy on big sellers and ignored some individual users. This gave Mercari an opportunity. Therefore, in order to seize this market, Mercari decided to develop mobile phone users. After successfully launching the mobile sales experience, the platform grew rapidly.

This is the end of the information about Mercari in this issue. If you want to get more information about Mercari, please pay attention and we will continue to answer your questions~