- Combining the strengths of the two platforms to provide a simple, easy-to-search, safe/secure, and convenient shopping experience
- Appeal of highly-supported “blue ribbon stores” and delivery to be enhanced, in addition to various features e.g., organized design and easy product search
- Traffic referral from Yahoo! JAPAN, LINE, and PayPay to be unified for further growth
Yahoo Japan Corporation (hereinafter “Yahoo! JAPAN”) hereby announces that it will integrate Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping and PayPay Mall in October 2022 to a renewed Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, combining the strengths of the two platforms.
With this renewal, the strengths and useful features of PayPay Mall will be reinforced, such as design with organized product information and functions that facilitate product search. PayPay Mall’s strengths will be combined with the strengths of Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, which has over 400 million product listings, one of the largest in Japan, and an extensive user base. The resulting renewed shopping mall will provide simple, easy-to-search, safe/secure, and convenient shopping experiences. In addition, the standard of selected “blue ribbon stores” that are highly supported by users will be raised, and these stores will be displayed prominently to appeal to the users. Furthermore, “blue ribbon delivery,” which delivers products within three days of placing an order, including the day of the order, will also be reinforced.
PayPay Mall was launched in October 2019 as a premium shopping mall of selected stores that meet the tenant standards set by Yahoo! JAPAN and are also highly supported by users in store evaluations and product reviews. It offers a safe and secure shopping experience for users, allowing items to be returned or exchanged, for example, for another size. In addition, by refining the design and search functions*1 which are optimized for each category, such as fashion, home electronics, and cosmetics, PayPay Mall has been designed to make information easy to browse and find.
As a result of its efforts to create a user-first sales platform, approximately 1,700 stores have opened in PayPay Mall, including well-known stores such as the electrical equipment manufacturer, Dyson; the electronics mass retailer, Yamada Denki; and the cosmetics retailer, FANCL. The transaction value has also grown significantly over the past three years.
However, as a result of having two shopping platforms – Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping with an abundant number of products, and PayPay Mall with selected stores –some users have pointed out the difficulty of telling the difference between the two malls in terms of design, features, campaigns, etc., as well as in concept. Furthermore, traffic referral from the services of the Group companies of Z Holdings Corporation (hereinafter “ZHD”) tended to be dispersed.
In light of these circumstances, it was decided that, leveraging the strengths of PayPay Mall (design, function, selected stores) and Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping (one of Japan’s largest product listings and large user base), and integrating the two into a renewed Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping would be the best solution both for users and stores, and for the growth of Yahoo! JAPAN’s shopping business.
The new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, which will be launched in October, will not only offer refined design and search functions, but will also set higher standards for "blue ribbon stores," and will display and promote more carefully selected "blue ribbon stores" indicated by icons that are easy to recognize on the list of search results. Referral from the top page of the new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping will also be reinforced to provide a more safe and secure shopping experience to the users.
Yahoo! JAPAN will also enhance delivery, which is in high demand from users, to increase user convenience. From December 2020, to make it easier to know the items that are delivered within three days of placing an order, including the day of the order, Yahoo! JAPAN has begun labeling items with a "blue ribbon delivery" icon. In addition, to facilitate stores to meet the "blue ribbon delivery" standards, Yahoo! JAPAN has strengthened cooperation with partner companies that handle logistics services, such as Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd.*2,3. As a result, the number of views for products that are "blue ribbon delivery" supported, and the sales growth rate of supporting stores have increased compared to non-"blue ribbon delivery" products and stores, and user demands tend to be high for "blue ribbon delivery" as well. From around August, Yahoo! JAPAN plans to implement various measures for users, such as the facilitation of finding "blue ribbon delivery" supported products in the search results. In addition, a cash-back campaign is being offered to stores that implement "blue ribbon delivery," and the number of stores and products that support "blue ribbon delivery" will be increased.
The name of the integrated and renewed service will be “Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping,” which is better known. In September 2021, Yahoo! JAPAN acquired the trademark rights to the Yahoo! JAPAN brand in Japan, enabling it to use the brand with more flexibility.
Leveraging the assets of the ZHD Group, which include Yahoo! JAPAN used by approximately 86 million*4, LINE by approximately 92 million*5, and PayPay by approximately 47 million*6, the traffic referral to the new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping will be unified and maximized from October to bring further growth.
Point-reward campaigns are also planned to be renewed to make them simpler and more straightforward.
Please note that as with the current Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, the initial cost for opening stores and the monthly fixed cost and monthly royalties*7 will be free of charge in the new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping. The business model will consist of fees for advertising both inside and outside of the new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping that is conducted by the stores as part of their sales activities, fees for participation in campaigns for users organized by the new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, as well as commissions for new sales promotion support measures offered to stores that wish to participate in them.
Upholding “Making Japan more convenient, with the power of information technology” as its mission, Yahoo! JAPAN will improve shopping for its users on the renewed Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping, to provide a simple, easy-to-search, safe/secure, and convenient experience, while also accelerating the growth of Yahoo! JAPAN’s shopping business even further.
■ Hajime HATANAKA, EVP, Corporate Officer, President of Shopping Services Group, Commerce Group, Yahoo Japan Corporation
In order to pursue one of the strategies of Yahoo! JAPAN’s shopping business, which is ease of search, Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping and PayPay Mall will be integrated and renewed to launch the new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping in October.
The new Yahoo! JAPAN Shopping is committed to making shopping experiences simpler, easier to understand, and more amazing (!) for all our customers.
We will also strive to ensure that quality stores with excellent delivery, store ratings, and customer inquiry response, which are supported by customers, are more visible to users, thereby providing even better shopping experiences.
*1
・ Fashion category: Listing of images of the same product by color and the number of each in stock (Japanese only)
https://topics.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/notice/archives/20200331paypaycolorvariation.html
・ Cosmetics category: A more refined search available by brand, skin type, volume (ml), presence or absence of alcohol ingredients, characteristics, etc. (Japanese only)
https://topics.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/notice/archives/20200731_cosme.html
・ Home appliances category: Comparison of old and new models (latest models, previous models, etc.), specifications of related products, and colors and sizes of the same product (Japanese only)
https://topics.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/notice/archives/201912061230ppm.html
*2Announcement of New Commerce Strategy to Strengthen Logistics/Delivery (March 2020)
https://www.z-holdings.co.jp/en/ir/news/auto_20200322482227/pdfFile.pdf
*3Renewal of Fulfillment Service for EC Stores Jointly Offered with YAMATO TRANSPORT CO., LTD. (April 2021, Japanese only)
https://about.yahoo.co.jp/pr/release/2021/03/10b/
*4Number of monthly users: Nielsen TOPS OF 2021: DIGITAL IN JAPAN (Top 10 Internet services used by users in Japan) Average monthly number of users between January – October 2021. Does not include duplicate users of smartphones and PCs.
*5Number of monthly users: As of April 2022
*6Cumulative number of registered users: As of April 2022
*7Affiliate partner commissions and fees, individual payment service fees, and some optional services may be charged.
Unless otherwise specified, English-language documents are prepared solely for the convenience of non-Japanese speakers. If there is any inconsistency between the English-language documents and the Japanese-language documents, the Japanese-language documents will prevail.