Naver to Secure Loyal Customers, Kurly to Expand Platform Users (Comprehensive)

Naver and Kurly Launch Premium Grocery Service "Kurly N Mart"
Naver to Strengthen Customer Loyalty, Kurly to Broaden Customer Base
Membership Integration with Uber Taxi Planned for Q3... Expanding Partnerships

Naver and the early-morning delivery company Kurly have formed a strategic partnership to boost user loyalty. Naver aims to secure a loyal customer base by collaborating with Kurly, which has competitive strengths in product curation and logistics. Kurly plans to target new customer segments that have not previously used Kurly by leveraging Naver's 40 million users. Moving forward, Naver intends to expand its partnerships, including collaborations with Netflix, Kurly, and Uber Taxi.

On September 9, Naver and Kurly held the "Naver Commerce Meetup with Kurly" event at Jongno Place in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where they announced their partnership plans. The event was attended by Yoon Sook Lee, Head of Naver Shopping Division; Kyung Hwa Jung, Product Leader of Naver Plus Store; and Seul Ah Kim, CEO of Kurly.

Yoon Sook Lee, Head of Naver Shopping Division (from left), Seul Ah Kim, CEO of Kurly, and Kyung Hwa Jung, Product Leader of Naver Plus Store at Naver, are speaking at the "Naver Commerce Meetup with Kurly" event on the 9th. Provided by Naver

Previously, on September 5, Naver and Kurly launched the online grocery shopping service "KurlyN Mart." Through KurlyN Mart, customers can receive popular products from Naver Smart Store and fresh food from Kurly via early-morning delivery. Naver Plus Membership users can enjoy free delivery on purchases over 20,000 won. In addition, Kurly's logistics subsidiary, Kurly Nextmile, joined the Naver Fulfillment Alliance (NFA) earlier this month, enabling early-morning delivery for Smart Store products as well.

For this service launch, Kurly curated its product lineup to suit Naver users. The platform offers a selection of grocery items that are frequently purchased and highly preferred by users of both platforms. Kurly's premium products, private brand (PB) items, fresh foods, and daily necessities are now available.

At the briefing, CEO Seul Ah Kim stated, "This marks Kurly's first entry onto an external platform, which I see as an opportunity for greater growth. Alongside Kurly’s carefully selected product lineup, we will also offer more popular and familiar products tailored to Naver’s customer base." She added, "Many users previously felt Kurly was a difficult service to use, but with this new service, we are receiving feedback that it is more affordable and better than expected. I view it positively that users are discovering Kurly’s competitively priced PB products through Naver."

Naver to Secure Loyal Customers, Kurly to Expand New Customer Base... Naver to Collaborate with Uber Taxi in Q3

Naver plans to strengthen its "customer loyalty" through its commerce business. This loyalty refers to increasing repurchase and repeat purchase rates by offering carefully curated products and brands on the Naver Shopping platform. Yoon Sook Lee, Head of Naver Shopping Division, said, "Through this collaboration with Kurly, Naver will be able to provide users with a stable and consistent grocery shopping experience in areas where we were previously lacking, such as fresh food databases, premium grocery shopping, and early-morning delivery. We will continue to expand collaborations with partners who have leadership and loyalty in lifestyle-focused sectors, such as OTT, grocery, and mobility, centering on user loyalty."

Going forward, Naver plans to further enhance its customer loyalty by advancing its artificial intelligence (AI) technology. On this day, Product Leader Kyung Hwa Jung said, "Naver will connect its content assets, such as blogs and cafes, to product recommendations. We also plan to launch an 'AI Shopping Agent Service' utilizing generative AI in the future."

Naver also shared its plans for a strategic partnership with Uber Taxi in the third quarter. Naver announced that it will strengthen membership benefits by collaborating with Netflix in content, Kurly in grocery shopping, and Uber Taxi in mobility. Lee stated, "We are considering ways to allow Naver Plus Membership users to access Uber Taxi's membership service, 'Uber One.' Our goal is to launch this by the 31st, and we will share more details as they become available."

During the Q&A session, questions were raised about the differences between KurlyN Mart and Kurly, as well as concerns that the memberships of Naver and Kurly might overlap due to the collaboration. CEO Kim explained, "Naver has more than 40 million users, and we found that many of them have never used Kurly before. Compared to existing Kurly users, there is a higher proportion of four-person households and greater demand for bulk purchases, which is why we have curated a more popular and familiar product lineup."

Naver clarified that it has no plans to acquire Kurly. Yoon Sook Lee stated, "There are no acquisition plans. When considering capabilities and growth potential in products and logistics, Kurly was the only partner, which is why we have been reaching out to Kurly for collaboration for a long time." She added, "The partnership structure is mutually beneficial. For us (Naver) to use fresh food or a full cold-chain system would require a massive investment, and for Kurly to acquire new customers would also require significant spending. This partnership allows both companies to grow cost-effectively."