Mercari drives ROI with predictive modeling

While successful in Japan, online marketplace Mercari faced stiff competition in the U.S. from major players like eBay and Craigslist. To differentiate themselves, they leveraged GrowthLoop and BigQuery to build targeted campaigns and use predictive modeling. This enabled their marketing team to combat churn, improve user acquisition, and increase customer lifetime value — all without relying on their data team.

Mercari, a popular online marketplace founded in Japan, offers a platform for buyers and sellers to connect. Mercari’s business model centers on repeat purchases and building a community of buyers and sellers, which requires a strong focus on customer engagement and retention.

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SITUATION

Breaking into a competitive market

As Mercari expanded into the U.S. market, it faced steep competition from well-established players. While it had built a significant presence in Japan, U.S. shoppers tended to make one-time purchases rather than engage in the repeat buying and selling behaviors that Mercari’s platform thrives on. Mercari needed a data-driven approach to educate users about the value of its platform and keep them engaged.

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CHALLENGE

Converting data into marketing campaigns

Mercari’s main challenge was reducing churn and encouraging repeat purchases among its users. While the company had rich first-party data and predictive models in place, it struggled to activate this data for marketing. Despite a skilled data science team and access to BigQuery, Mercari lacked a streamlined process for turning its data into marketing action and needed a solution to empower its non-technical teams to drive growth.

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SOLUTION

Empowering marketers to self-serve

Mercari partnered with GrowthLoop to transform its marketing activation process. With GrowthLoop’s composable customer data platform (CDP), they unlocked the ability to activate their predictive models built in BigQuery — such as churn prediction and lifetime value models — and use them to directly inform marketing campaigns. GrowthLoop enabled Mercari’s marketing team to independently build and launch customer segments across all major channels like Google Ads, Facebook, and Braze without ongoing support from their data engineers.

RESULTS

Driving retention with personalization

By using GrowthLoop to activate predictive models, Mercari launched effective retargeting campaigns that reduced churn. Through audience segmentation, they tailored messaging for high-value users, improving customer retention and maximizing customer lifetime value.

Boosting acquisition with precise targeting

‍In addition to retention efforts, Mercari used GrowthLoop’s geographic-based targeting to overcome challenges posed by privacy restrictions in digital advertising. By focusing on location rather than cookie-based tracking, Mercari increased new customer acquisitions while achieving a better ROI.

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Martech stack