[mercari GEARS 2025] EGP - Mercari’s CRM Platform

Transcript

1. EGP - Mercari’s CRM Platform 
 Rupesh
 
 Merpay/Engineering Head
 
 Ben Hsieh
 Merpay/Engineering Manager

2. Rupesh leads the unified CRM platform. Joined Mercari in 2021, he initially led the "Engagement Platform" development and now focuses on platform reliability, developer experience, and external-grade quality. Rupesh
 Engineering Head
 Ben Hsieh
 Engineering Manager
 Joined Mercari in February 2020. Leading cross-platform technical solutions while also being a hands-on contributor to the technical development. Passionate about programming, embraces the “Go Bold” mindset by actively exploring new technologies.

3. Takeaway
 • Building a internal platform pays off – in long term
 ◦ Vision
 ◦ Challenges
 ◦ Outcome
 ◦ Future

4. EGP — Mercari’s Engagement Platform
 • In-house platform to launch and manage campaigns
 • Multi‑brand, multi‑team, multi‑use‑case via configuration
 • Encourages usage and retention across our apps
 • “B2B ready” by design
 ◦ Auditability
 ◦ Permissioning & data access controls

5. Who it serves
 
 
 Platform Mercari Users Marketers Product Managers Campaigns Measure Impact Encourage Integrate Developers 
 EGP

6. Pre-EGP
 
 
 Siloed CRMs No Customer Delight Campaigns took Longer TTM Document A Document B Document C Document D… Procedure 1 Procedure 2 Procedure 3… Several Procedures / Docs to follow
7. Developing a product platform within a SaaS organization • Challenges
 ◦ Near-term business priorities dominate planning cycles
 ◦ Hard to negotiate for investment that compounds later
 • Solution
 ◦ Having a vision and safeguarding it
 ◦ Ship incremental wins that ladder up to the vision

8. What helped Separation of responsibility helped to evolve
 
 
 Config and Control Plane
 
 Docs & Self-Serve UI Campaign & Segment Config
 Policy / Permissions
 Data Processing Plane
 Event Ingestion Evaluation
 Incentives / Notifications /Content
 

9. Significant milestones in EGP's growth
 First Release 09/21
 
 
 
 First campaign ever configured and ran on production
 It was a real-time Campaign
 Recurring Batch 05/23
 
 Helped marketers to avoid configuring same batch recurrently
 Notificati ons Only 7/23
 Campaign distributing only notifications.
 Brought Huge volume campaigns to the platform
 Batch Campaigns
 12/22
 
 As part of a legacy tool migration EGP supported Batch campaigns 
 Super Mercari Days 
 08/24
 Delighted users with the Lottery experience during Super Mercari Days
 Cross Border 
 02/25
 Supporting Campaigns across borders
 Content Serving
 06/25
 
 
 
 Ability to serve Banners, Modals
 A/B testing
 10/25
 
 
 Ability to test variants
 Workflow
 Builder
 12/25
 
 Create Complex User journeys as part of one flow
 AI integration
 12/25
 
 Improving internal and external User’s Experience

10. Exponential growth Total Campaigns Hosted 5000+ 
 2022 2023 2024 2025~ Total Distribution Done
 10+ Billion 
 2022 2023 2024 2025~ *not to scale
11. Coping with Complexity: Enhancing Platform Experience

12. There are several parties from requirements to people who get to implement
 Traditional setup of operations
 Requirements, Ideas End users (App, Web, etc) EGP Platform Team Communication Deploy
13. Spec mutates in different stage results into incorrect output
 Communication Gap
 
 Track impression when it is “visible” <code> onVisible => impression(item) How can we make sure the result is exactly what want? Can we reuse this process? ?

14. Marketing staff operate by themselves, closing the gap
 The change after EGP was introduced
 Requirements, Ideas EGP Platform Team Platform Enhancements
 Fixes
 Features
 End users (App, Web, etc) Config Deploy 
 EGP

15. A typical operations back then
 Increased Capability, Increased Complexity
 Notification
 Segmentation
 Screen/Page
 Hello 👋
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 CTA
 Kind A
 Kind B
 Here’s a great deal ✨
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

16. Its capability increases gradually as it grows wider adoption
 Increased Capability, Increased Complexity
 Notification
 Segmentation
 Screen/Page
 Hello 👋
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 CTA
 Kind A
 Kind B
 Here’s a great deal ✨
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 Kind C
 🙏Can we also support notification “Kind C”?

17. Sometimes engineers also contributed their ambitious solutions
 Increased Capability, Increased Complexity
 Notification
 Segmentation
 Screen/Page
 Hello 👋
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 CTA
 Kind A
 Kind B
 Here’s a great deal ✨
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 Kind C
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 App Screen
 Content
 🤓Let’s make native screens also configurable 👍👍
18. And .. operations nowadays
 Increased Capability, Increased Complexity
 Notification
 Variant
 Screen/Page
 Hello 👋
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 CTA
 Kind A
 Kind B
 Kind C
 Screen/Page
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 Content
 Screen/Page
 Hi 👋
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 CTA
 Segmentation
 Variant
 Notification
 Kind A
 Kind B
 Kind C
 Screen/Page
 ⚡Offer
 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 CTA
 Content
 Segmentation
 🤔 Did I miss anything? Is the configuration complete and correct?

19. The Paradox of Platform Growth
 As growing power of our platform, fully empowering users has become challenging due to a steeper learning curve.
 Ease of use Capability, Complexity Productivity?
20. From Functional Development to Operational Maturity “Small” details that once seemed secondary now define how effectively the system operates day to day.
 • Friendly UX, configuration management, powerful search.
 EGP ➡ This is where we found AI can be a good fit into our need GUI

21. • Platform AI Agent: On top of existing establishments, and efficient way to access through a generic interface
 • MCP: Enable platform AI accessibility
 Our Ongoing AI Infrastructure AI Agent
 MCP
 EGP GUI

22. Our Ongoing AI Infrastructure Platform AI Agent - assistive user interface as an future-proof alternative
 • Language-driven interface sharing the same platform capabilities
 • Adapts automatically to platform updates — less new UI 
 AI Agent
 MCP
 EGP GUI

23. MCP Integration enables platform’s AI accessibility 
 • Any authenticated client with can utilize platform capability with AI
 • Even AI Agent itself becomes a sub-agent through this protocol
 Our Ongoing AI Infrastructure MCP
 EGP GUI
 AI Agent

24. Takeaway - Recap
 • Building a internal platform pays off – in long term
 ◦ Vision - Empower 
 ◦ Challenges - Temporary 
 ◦ Outcome - Everlasting and rewarding
 ◦ Future - Iterate and Improvise on details

25. Thank You!