2024-12-5
Bringing the Mercari Experience Overseas Through a Bottom-Up Crossborder Business—Meet Mercari’s Leaders: Suwen Weng / VP of Product (Cross Border)
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“Work passionately toward achieving something.”
As Vice President of Product (Cross Border), Suwen Weng (@suwen) leads the product domain for Mercari’s global expansion efforts through crossborder transactions. Since its launch in 2019, Mercari’s crossborder business has continued to grow, and in summer of 2024, Mercari officially expanded to Taiwan through crossborder transactions. In this interview, Suwen speaks passionately about her ambitions to share Mercari’s services and an enjoyable shopping experience with people around the world. We ask her about the crossborder business’s goal beyond GMV growth to achieve circulation of value throughout the world.
Profile
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Suwen Weng
Originally from Nanjing, China. After completing a Master’s degree program in Japan, Suwen went to work for a major global petroleum service company. There, she began her career path as a software engineer. A fan of online shopping, she moved to a Japanese apparel company as a product manager for order management products. She joined the Mercari Technical Product Manager Team in March 2021. She started her career at Mercari as a TPM for transaction products, and worked on development for the crossborder and logistics products as a PM manager. She assumed the role of Vice President of Product (Cross Border) in July 2024.
Sharing Mercari’s services and an enjoyable shopping experience with the world
—Could you tell us about the domain that you manage?
Currently, as VP of Product for the crossborder business, I’m in charge of the product domain for Mercari’s global expansion through crossborder transactions. Mercari’s crossborder business started in 2019 and continues to grow every year.
Our team’s mission is to implement various strategies to strengthen Mercari’s crossborder business. Last year, we developed and enabled open APIs. This made system integration with our overseas partners possible, allowing users around the world to purchase items that are listed on Mercari.
Right now, we are focused on further expanding our crossborder channels with the aim to share Mercari’s services and an enjoyable shopping experience with more people around the world.
Feeling drawn to Mercari’s product-driven culture
—Tell us about your career path. Where did your career begin?
During my university days, I majored in computer science and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and information systems. I then went on to graduate school, after which I started my career as a software engineer at the world’s largest oilfield services company. The company’s core businesses include oilfield exploration and the development and manufacturing of relevant measurement equipment. In the eight years that I worked there, I learned a lot about development processes, evaluation systems, project management, and how to communicate with people of various backgrounds. I worked with electrical, mechanical, and software engineers, and I gained a broad range of experience developing everything from hardware to software to embedded tools.
Another trait of the job was that quality standards are extremely high across the oil industry as a whole in order to guarantee safety. The tools and software that we develop are used in oil wells, which are highly hazardous environments. A single bug in the software could lead to huge losses, and in the worst-case scenario, the loss of lives. It was a work environment that involved strict processes not only when designing the software, but also when working with engineers of different domains.
—What made you decide to change jobs?
My workplace at the time consisted of about half Japanese and half international employees. Although the company itself was located in Kanagawa, Japan, I used English in my daily work, and it hardly felt like I was living in Japan.
My work also involved conducting tests, for which sometimes I would visit the lab, put on a white coat, and connect hardware, and sometimes I would fly directly to the Middle East.
While my work was fulfilling, I began to develop the strong desire to work as a software engineer in an industry that was closer to the end user. I wanted to create software that would improve the daily lives of many people, including my own. That was the biggest reason I decided to change jobs.
I then moved to Fast Retailing in 2018, where I worked on the project to create an e-commerce system for Uniqlo’s expansion to the global market. I was part of the project from the initial stages and was in charge of the order and inventory management systems. I also oversaw the management tools for everything from customer support to warehouse operations.
—And what led you to then join Mercari?
I actually considered joining Mercari after receiving an invitation from a previous superior of mine from Fast Retailing.
At Fast Retailing, I found the experience of developing a global package extremely rewarding. However, due to the nature of the business, everything was centered around the clothing.
Uniqlo is a brand built on the planning and manufacturing of clothing, so all of the decision-making tended to be based around what clothes to make and sell more of. I wanted to gain experience in growing a business and developing a software product through a more data- and product-driven approach.
My former superior who had invited me to join Mercari explained that all of Mercari’s business decisions were based on its app and web services. I was drawn to this product-driven culture and decided to join Mercari.
—How has working at Mercari felt different compared to your previous workplaces?
The first two companies I worked for were similar in that they were both relatively traditional production industry corporations. Projects were managed in waterfall style, and large projects would take years to complete. In addition, most decisions were made top-down.
One of the biggest differences at Mercari is that decisions are made bottom-up. This is especially true of the crossborder organization, where our workstyle is close to that of a startup. Members from the business side, marketing, product management, and engineering all work together starting from the initial phases of a project. Each member brings a different perspective to the table, and we’re able to discuss the best approach and make decisions quickly, much like a startup.
Growing the crossborder business with a strong passion
—What are you focused on at the moment?
The mission of Mercari’s crossborder business is to create a global marketplace where anyone can buy, sell, and circulate value throughout the world. My mission within this is to provide an enjoyable shopping experience to users overseas and eventually drive transactions on the Mercari platform as a whole. Personally, I would like to aim for not simply GMV growth but true circulation of value.
Our current model allows users from overseas to purchase items listed on Mercari in Japan through our partnering crossborder e-commerce businesses, but eventually we want to enable listers in Japan and buyers overseas to transact directly. I believe this will allow us to introduce Mercari and our service to many more people overseas.
We are also continuing to expand the areas that we cover. We have just released our service in Taiwan in the summer of 2024, and moving forward we are considering expanding to Hong Kong, other places in Asia, and beyond. This isn’t something that can be achieved in a quarter or a year and requires us to look years into the future, which makes it feel incredibly worthwhile to me.
Within the organization, members from all fields of expertise are able to share ideas toward growing the business, and I value supporting such ideas. It’s also great that we share the same goals and KPIs across teams, which makes decision-making easier and faster.
—Lastly, please share with us your work philosophy.
In my mind, the most important thing is to work passionately toward achieving something.
In the three and a half years since I joined Mercari, I’ve observed that nearly everyone here is highly passionate about something they want to achieve and about contributing to the growth of Mercari. The same is true within the crossborder business. Our members are passionate about growing the business and providing further value to the world. This shared culture is important, and it unites our team.
Since becoming VP, I have also gained a newfound appreciation of the importance of understanding the needs of not just management but members on the ground. Moving forward, I would like to provide the support needed to ensure every member is able to embody our company values and to increase the value our business provides.
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