Positioning itself for a broader international rollout, Mercari Japan is introducing a dedicated app for U.S. shoppers to buy resale goods from its Japanese marketplace.
Tokyo-based Mercari Inc., Japan’s largest consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace, said June 17 that it has launched a standalone Mercari Japan app in the U.S.
Rather than shopping through Mercari’s existing U.S. marketplace, U.S. users can now browse Japanese listings and Mercari Shops in a separate app. There, they can find collectibles, anime merchandise, trading cards, fashion, games and other new and used items. The app includes real-time artificial intelligence (AI) language translation, Mercari said, and supports U.S. dollar payments through domestic payment services.
“By reducing barriers such as language, payment, and purchasing complexity, the app helps users discover great deals on authentic and rare products from Japan,” the company said in its announcement.
To support that push, Mercari has selected Utah-based Zonos as its cross-border technology partner. With Zonos, U.S. shoppers will see fully calculated landed costs at checkout — including customs duties, taxes and other import‑related fees — so there are “no surprise fees at delivery,” the company said.
The U.S. launch also builds on Mercari’s Global App rollout in Taiwan and Hong Kong last September. According to a Nikkei report, the company plans to expand the app to at least 50 countries and regions by 2028.
What Mercari’s Japan brings to U.S. shoppers
Founded in 2013 as a mobile‑first marketplace, Mercari said it now has more than 23 million monthly active users.
In Japan, its peer‑to‑peer marketplace fills a similar role to eBay, Poshmark and Depop, though its platform appears more transaction‑driven and less auction‑oriented than eBay.
For U.S. shoppers, the new app opens access to the Japanese marketplace, which Mercari said has more than 4 billion cumulative listings. Inventory also includes Mercari Shops and products from Suruga‑ya, a major Japanese entertainment and hobby retailer with strong fandom appeal. Suruga-ya’s inventory began integrating into the marketplace in December.
Notably, the Mercari Japan app operates separately from Mercari’s existing U.S. marketplace, which launched in 2014 and remains focused on domestic buying and selling.
As users shift to the standalone app, the company said it will phase out its Mercari x Japan feature — previously available inside the U.S. marketplace for shoppers buying items from Japan.
What shoppers get in the Mercari Japan app
Beyond access to more Japanese listings, Mercari is trying to simplify the mechanics of buying from overseas sellers.
The company said it manages the purchase flow — payment, shipping and package tracking — and inspects every item before final shipment.
All purchases include shipping protection. Mercari also framed the U.S. app as a way to bypass proxy buying services and their added fees, allowing shoppers to buy directly through Mercari Japan.
More features for the app are on the way. They include auction-style listings, preorders, optional authentication and “entertainment and gaming elements,” Mercari said. To promote the U.S. launch, the company is offering coupons through July 5. The promotion includes a 30% off first-purchase coupon for new customers, a 25% off coupon for trading cards and a 20% off sitewide coupon, each with maximum discount limits.
Why cross-border commerce matters for Mercari
Overseas customers buying from Japan have become one of the fastest-growing parts of Mercari’s business.
According to the company, cross-border gross merchandise value (GMV) has grown more than 15-fold over the past three years, reaching more than 90 billion yen, or about $558 million, annually.
Mercari has pinpointed cross-border transactions as a high-growth area. In March, chief financial officer Sayaka Eda told Nikkei that Mercari aims for cross-border transactions to account for more than 10% of domestic GMV.
Mercari’s U.S. business, meanwhile, has had a more uneven path. Nikkei reported that growth in the U.S. marketplace slowed after pandemic-era resale demand cooled and it faced issues, including fraudulent users and counterfeit listings.
More recently, though, performance has improved. U.S. revenue rose 11% year over year in the October-December quarter — its first double-digit growth rate in four years, Nikkei said. For the nine months ended March 31, 2026, Mercari reported U.S. GMV of $602 million, up 10.0% year over year, with revenue up 9.2%.
How Mercari uses AI in its marketplace
Beyond the app, Mercari has been using AI to streamline listing and product discovery.
In a Google Cloud case study, Mercari said its AI listing tool lets sellers take photos of an item and have AI generate a title and description. That has cut listing time to about 15 seconds from roughly five to 10 minutes, the company said.
Mercari has also deployed AI-powered image search, allowing buyers to upload or take a photo and find visually similar items. Sellers can also use the feature to research pricing for items they plan to list.
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