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NAVER D-Commerce Report 2022

NAVER’s Seller Support Solutions Drive Growth of Younger, Small city, Small-scale Sellers, Expanding Seller Diversity

- NAVER's seller support solutions drive the growth of the e-commerce ecosystem, with 550,000 SmartStores growing 72% annually

- NAVER's strategy of lowering barriers for young, small-city, small-scale sellers leads to overall market growth, with individual seller performance seeing 3 times higher growth

- AI solutions for efficient business operations and financial solutions that facilitate money flow help businesses increase sales and expand their customer base

 

2022-12-22

 

NAVER's SmartStore and seller support services have been found to increase seller diversity within the e-commerce market, by expanding the number of young, small-city, and small-scale sellers. These services also contributed to the growth of individual sellers, and the overall revitalization of the e-commerce market.

 

In the ‘D-Commerce Report 2022’, published this year for the fifth time, research teams led by Professor Lee Kun-woong of Korea University and Professor Choi Bo-reum of Seoul National University analyzed the effects of NAVER's seller support solutions on increasing diversity and expanding the e-commerce ecosystem.

 

NAVER has provided a range of technological tools to support every step of building a business, including NAVER SmartStore, a solution that enables anyone to set up an online store without requiring technical expertise or capital. Examples include solutions for product management, marketing, order/payment, shipping/logistics, and customer management, as well as financial solutions such as quick settlement, and data/statistical tools. In addition, NAVER has also attracted sellers of various ages, locations, and sizes by offering a range of educational programs necessary for successful business operations.

 

As of December of this year, there are 550,000 SmartStores in operation, and the number of products in the NAVER ecosystem has grown by over 50% compared to that of last year. By satisfying users' shopping demand through a diverse selection of sellers and products, SmartStore's gross merchandising value (GMV) recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 72% from 2015 to 2021.

 

Professor Lee's research team found that the seller-oriented solutions and services that NAVER has consistently improved enhance both the diversity of sellers and the efficiency of the overall e-commerce market.

 

According to the research, as NAVER's ▲business ▲financial ▲operational support programs become more advanced, the number of Smart Stores, GMV, and product orders of younger (in their 10~30s), small city and small-scale sellers (annual sales less than 300 million won) have seen relatively faster growth in the number of Smart Stores, GMV, and product orders compared to older, metropolitan, and large-scale seller groups.

 

It was notable that the number of orders and overall GMV for younger, small-city, and small-scale sellers increased as more users viewed the product detail pages. These sellers saw a 2-3 times higher effect on GMV and a 2-5 times higher effect on orders compared to older, metropolitan, and large-scale sellers, indicating overall market growth and efficiency. 

 

Sellers who used a variety of NAVER's support services saw 2.6 times higher product orders and 2.5 times higher GMV compared to those who did not use these services. In particular, young, small-city, and small-scale sellers who used NAVER's support services experienced 2.8 to 3.1 times higher number of orders and 2.8 to 3.0 times higher GMV compared to those who did not use these services. These results are significantly higher than the 2.2 to 2.4 times higher number of orders and 2.3 to 2.4 times higher GMV seen among older, metropolitan, and large-scale sellers.

 

"The introduction of support services and solutions for sellers has had a lasting positive effect on increasing seller diversity on the platform, which led to increased diversity of products and transactions in the entire market," said Professor Lee. "NAVER SmartStore has promoted diversity among sellers through continuous support for business, finance, and operational solutions and services; and as a result, it has successfully achieved a virtuous cycle of positive network effects that contributed to the expansion of the NAVER shopping ecosystem."

 

Professor Choi's research team conducted a study to examine the business impact of using NAVER's seller support services among SmartStore sellers. The results showed that, on average, sales increased by 64.3% when sellers utilized NAVER’s business solutions such as Shopping Live, Biz Advisor, and Clova AI commerce solutions. ‘Store building’, ‘customer management’, and ‘promotional tools’ were the most popular and highly rated among sellers. Additionally, sellers who used SmartStore promotional tools experienced 6.3 times more customer expansion compared to those who did not use these tools. 

 

The study also found that sellers who used financial support services such as quick settlement, business loans, and return relief care had, on average, 41.6% higher sales compared to sellers who did not use these services. Specifically, sellers who utilized quick settlement services were able to attract 2.4 times more customers, thanks to the improved flow of money.

 

In addition, it was found that sellers with lower digital capabilities are more likely to use AI commerce solutions, aligning with NAVER's platform goal of providing high-tech technologies that can be easily used by anyone. NAVER Business School and NAVER Square's education programs on "product and sales," "financial support," and "technical support" have been highly rated by sellers. In addition, the recently released "Clova Live Chat" and "NFA (NAVER Fulfillment Alliance)", which helps to reduce shipping burdens, are expected to be useful solutions for sellers in the future.

 

"Sellers carefully consider and compare the solutions and services offered by various platforms to determine which will best support their business growth. We found that in today's e-commerce market as digital transformation accelerates, sellers are expressing high levels of satisfaction with NAVER SmartStore," said Professor Choi. She added, "NAVER's commitment to making it easy for sellers of all levels of digital expertise to utilize AI technology will contribute to the expansion of the e-commerce ecosystem."