Naver's artificial intelligence (AI) shopping agent ended about four months of beta operation and launched as an official service on the 25th of last month. Following the conversational search AI tab, the official release of an AI shopping agent specialized for shopping is expected to further expand the agentic experience that connects users' exploration to actual actions across Naver's services.
The AI shopping agent is evolving beyond a shopping guide that finds and summarizes products into an execution-focused agent that understands the user's question intent and shopping context and even suggests the next action.
More than 70% of users of the AI shopping agent enter specific long-tail queries of 15 characters or more, and complex shopping requests that consider multiple conditions such as price and features are steadily increasing. Naver noted that users are becoming accustomed to refining their shopping criteria through conversations with the agent and finding the best options.
User changes are also seen in service growth metrics. In June, the AI shopping agent's daily users increased more than 50% compared with March, right after the beta launch, and the average daily returning users nearly tripled, showing the service is taking hold around loyal users. The transaction amount through the AI shopping agent grew more than 2.7 times. As recommendation quality improves, it shows that product exploration through conversations with AI is naturally leading to actual purchases.
In the official version, answer performance was enhanced to more broadly understand users' question intent and shopping context. For example, when a user asks, "What's good for a housewarming meal kit?" instead of just listing products, it first suggests shopping criteria suited to the situation—such as "a visually appealing main dish," "party platter," and "simple soup dish"—and then recommends products that fit. Even for simple situational questions like "Recommend cat health care items," it presents shopping themes appropriate to the purpose, such as gut health and joint/skin care, guiding the exploration direction more precisely. It also provides information on promotions and membership benefits so each user can receive optimal benefits.
Usability of the agent was also improved. A "edit question" feature was added that allows users to edit questions already entered during a conversation, and a "feedback" feature was added to share positive or negative ratings and other opinions on the agent's answers.
In addition, a "view sources at a glance" feature was added to see the UGC content the AI shopping agent referenced for recommendations all at once. The company said users can check the latest content created on blogs and cafes more easily, and trust in the answers generated by the agent is expected to improve.
Lee Jeong-tae, Naver's shopping search & AI leader, said, "Naver's AI shopping agent is rapidly evolving into an execution-focused agent that takes on complex online shopping processes—searching, comparing, and exploring—through a Q&A process with users and even suggests actions that can lead to actual purchases," adding, "In the second half of this year, we will focus on advancing the technology to provide a seamless, smart, agentic shopping experience from search to payment, including personalized membership benefit recommendations and strengthened cart and delivery information."