From Short-Form Education to Marketing Support... Naver and Kakao Back Small Business Sales Efforts

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] Naver and Kakao have rolled up their sleeves to support online sales for small and medium-sized merchants. They have launched win-win initiatives such as providing training to help create short-form videos and holding special exhibitions for product sales.

Naver is conducting the Naver Shopping Live 'Short Clip Speech School' to help small and medium-sized merchants develop their own competitiveness. This program is the first public-private collaborative education project jointly promoted by Naver and the Small Enterprise and Market Service. The goal is to enhance related capabilities through educational support so that small and medium-sized merchants can directly plan and produce short clips of around 10 minutes, which are newly emerging content in live commerce.

Naver provides various support using its own educational capabilities and infrastructure, including live commerce educational content, production personnel, equipment, and space. The program runs for about three months from mid-this month to December. A total of 120 Smart Store operators who applied through pre-education recruitment will participate in this course.

The course is conducted through various online and offline practical training by a mentoring group led by live commerce professional hosts Hyo-seok Kim and Won-seok Lee. A systematic educational program is prepared, including communication techniques to strengthen live production and hosting skills, 1:1 coaching through live practice, and small group training.

In-hee Lee, Head of Naver Education Center, said, "Naver Shopping Live is a tool that helps small and medium-sized merchants increase online business sales and secure loyal customers. We have prepared practice-oriented education to respond to the changing e-commerce environment." He added, "We will continue to provide various educational programs so that small and medium-sized merchants can use Naver services more easily and confidently to achieve digital transformation."

Kakao is holding the 'Tokdeal Win-Win Day' special exhibition on KakaoTalk Shopping, operated by Commerce CIC, featuring products from small and medium-sized merchants until today.

'Tokdeal Win-Win Day' is a special exhibition that benefits both small and medium-sized Tokstore sellers and customers. Shopping offers over 180 small and medium-sized enterprise products at ultra-low prices through Tokdeal, which allows purchasing products at special prices for a limited time (79 hours). To promote sales, exclusive coupons offering up to 10% discounts are also provided, with Kakao covering the entire cost.

Since this year, Shopping has expanded educational support programs and special exhibitions to help small and medium-sized merchants successfully transition digitally. So far, in addition to regular educational programs, a total of 13 training courses have been conducted in partnership with external organizations such as the Korea Federation of SMEs Distribution Center and the Creative Economy Innovation Center.

This year, 13 special exhibitions targeting small and medium-sized merchants have been held, helping to expand sales channels. These exhibitions are conducted based on proposals from sellers, with a high selection rate of 49%. About 1,100 products were selected from approximately 2,500 proposed products to hold the exhibitions, and two more special exhibitions for small and medium-sized sellers are planned for October.

A KakaoTalk Shopping official said, "We are expanding education and special exhibitions to provide practical help such as successful digital transformation experiences and sales channel expansion for small and medium-sized Tokstore sellers." He added, "In addition to supporting sellers, we plan to continuously create opportunities to help customers practice eco-friendly consumption by holding special exhibitions such as Earth Market."