General marketplace Mercari has introduced ‘bulk purchase’ function in Japan after its rollout in the U.S. to improve customer’s convenience and reduce the use of packaging materials and the number of deliveries.
Mercari says the option was launched in response to demand of consumers who want to purchase more than one items from a seller.
In the U.S. where the ‘bundle buying’ was introduced in 2022, the service is high demand mainly for toys and apparel. In bulk purchases, average 3.4 products are shipped together, according to Mercari’s research on randomly-selected 100 transactions in June.
A buyer needs to click ‘bulk purchase’ button on the product or seller’s profile page after selecting up to 10 products. The buyer receives notification of whether or not the request is accepted.
“We believe that this function not only improves convenience for both sellers and buyers, but also reduces the environmental impact and burden on logistics companies by reducing the use of packaging materials and the number of deliveries,” Mercari said.
Meanwhile, Mercari also introduced a smartphone data erasing service. Against a usage fee of Y1,400 ($9.5 U.S.) per device, a seller can get data of its mobile phone erased before listing it for sale.
The seller can also activate c-to-b selling option on Mercari’s website and get online payment for the smartphone from used-smartphone specialist, Belong.
However, Mercari is not directly involved in the c-to-b market. In Japan, 2.34 million secondhand smartphone terminals were sold during the fiscal year to June 2023, representing 10.4% growth year over year.
Mercari, headquartered in Tokyo, launched in Japan in 2013 and in the U.S. in 2014.