Naver to Launch Smart Store Platform in Japan in the First Half of the Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] Naver announced on the 1st that it will launch Smart Store in Japan within the first half of the year.

Line and Z Holdings (ZHD) announced the completion of their business integration on the same day and revealed ZHD's commerce business plans.

In response to the rapid growth of the Japanese e-commerce market, Naver plans to provide solutions through Smart Store to help Japanese sellers reduce the effort required to build and manage online shopping malls, allowing them to focus solely on product development and business growth.

Naver will also have the opportunity to introduce its commerce technology platform to hundreds of millions of Japanese users owned by the ZHD group.

The Naver Smart Store platform, through partnerships and collaborations among four companies?ZHD, Line, SoftBank, and Naver?is expected to offer a new commerce experience to Japanese users as a core tool for Line and Yahoo Japan's commerce business.

Han Seong-sook, CEO of Naver, said, "We hope that the advanced technology embedded in Smart Store and the respect for seller diversity will create a new trend in the Japanese e-commerce market."

Meanwhile, Naver Smart Store is a free online store building platform launched in 2018 for domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating both online and offline.