Naver to roll out AI shopping agent to boost ecommerce

Naver plans to expand its ecommerce offerings with AI tools after reporting record earnings last year, with revenue reaching around 12 trillion won (US$8.4 billion).

The company’s ecommerce segment accounted for over 30 percent of total sales, increasing 26.2 percent year-on-year to 3.7 trillion won (US$2.52 billion).

Naver intends to integrate generative AI into its ecommerce platform this year, including smarter search, recommendation engines, and automated ad targeting.

The company will launch a shopping AI agent this month to assist users with product suggestions and reviews, with plans to expand AI features by year-end.

The Naver Plus Store app reached over 7 million monthly active users in January.

🔗 Source: The Korea Times

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Naver’s AI push is a defense against fierce competition

Naver’s AI and logistics work functions as offense and as cover in a tight ecommerce race, since rivals also chase better product discovery, ad targeting, and delivery speed 1.
Naver competes neck and neck with Coupang, whose annual sales for 2024 are estimated at 40 trillion won 1.
Overseas entrants keep gaining ground. AliExpress offers zero-commission policies, while Temu’s user base passed 8.23 million by January 2025 after eight months in beta 2.
Competitors answer with large automation spending, including Lotte’s USD 200 million partnership with Ocado (a UK company that builds automated grocery fulfillment technology) for automated fulfillment centers 2.

The search engine as we know it is being replaced

Naver is moving away from the traditional search portal model toward an AI-driven action platform that completes shopping tasks rather than listing links.
The company is reorganizing its business from a search-oriented structure into “AI commerce,” where agents (AI assistants that can take multi-step actions for users) handle steps from discovery to payment 3.
Evidence already appears in search. Naver’s “AI Briefing” feature accounts for up to 8% of total search queries, and those queries draw over 20% more time spent 4.
The move also reshapes monetization. Revenue can come from AI-driven transactions across shopping, travel, and finance, plus search ads 3.