Mercari Experiments

What is necessary to make reuse of packaging materials the new standard? #PassOnMercariEcoPack

  • Reuse
  • Transportation
Mercari Experiments
Overview

Project overview

Mercari aims to create a world where items that no longer have value to one person are accessible to someone else who needs them. However, we face an increasing amount of packaging materials going to waste due to the rapid growth of the e-commerce market.

With the aim of offering a reusable choice for packaging materials, Mercari launched the Mercari Eco Pack in June 2019 and distributed about 10,000 units on a trial basis. Through this experiment, we were able to test whether users would accept reusing packaging materials as a new practice and culture. Three years later, in June 2022, we released the second edition of our Mercari Eco Pack. For this second edition, we improved the design and set up a system to return them at Mercari Stations nationwide.

    Areas of circular economy covered in this experiment: Reuse and shipping

  • Reuse of packaging materials

What is the Mercari Eco Pack?

  • What is the Mercari Eco Pack?
    • Characteristics:

    • It is made of materials used in tents. It boasts sturdiness to withstand repeated deliveries.

    • The tarpaulin material is also resistant to flooding.

    • A 3mm-thick cushioning material is used on all surfaces to absorb external shocks.

    • Use

    • If you receive a Mercari Eco Pack, you can reuse it for your next sold item

    • Compatible shipping sizes:

    • RakuRaku Mercari Shipping (NekoPos, A4, up to 3 cm thick)

    • YuYu Mercari Shipping (Yu-Packet / Yu-Packet Post, A4, up to 3 cm thick)

Initiatives

Initiatives from the first edition

Introducing the Mercari Eco Pack to our users

  • Introducing the Mercari Eco Pack to our users
  • As part of a series of events held for our users, we introduced the Mercari Eco Pack as a packaging reuse method for the first time and received feedback from our users.

Mercari Eco Pack collaboration with Japanese fashion magazine FraU in their special SDGs edition sold in bookstores nationwide

  • Mercari Eco Pack collaboration with Japanese fashion magazine FraU in their special SDGs edition sold in bookstores nationwide
  • On December 20th, 2019, the Mercari Eco Pack was introduced in the special SDGs edition of the Japanese fashion magazine FraU with the topic “How to start changing the world in 2020”. As a special gift for this publication, we distributed about 3000 limited edition Mercari Eco Packs to reach an environmentally-conscious audience interested in SDGs.
Result

Experiment and results

  • Findings from this survey:
Outlook

Future outlook

Based on the results of this study, we will examine how to solve concerns and issues of those users who still feel uncomfortable with reused packaging materials, and search for methods to make packaging reuse a more common practice.