NaviPlus and Huckleberry Launch “NaviPlus Search,” a Shopify App Optimized for Japanese-language Searches

-　NaviPlus Co., Ltd. is launching “NaviPlus Search,” a Shopify app optimized for Japanese-language searches. This app was jointly developed with Huckleberry, Inc., a company that plans, develops, and offers apps for Shopify.

Business operators with E-Commerce websites on Shopify can add the “NaviPlus Search” app to offer an exact internal search function optimized for the Japanese language. This extremely accurate search function is expected to have effects such as increasing the ratio of consumers who view product pages and improving the conversion rate.

■ Background of this collaboration
The Japanese B2C E-Commerce market has been growing every year in the field of goods sales. This market expanded significantly due to increased E-Commerce demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching roughly 13.3 trillion yen^*1 in 2021. Shopify is also experiencing massive growth in Japan, with a 228% year-on-year increase in the number of new shops and a 323%^*2 year-on-year increase in gross merchandise volume.

When boosting sales on E-Commerce sites, business operators need to improve usability by enabling consumers to search for the products they want to purchase smoothly. Because the Shopify multi-channel commerce platform was not developed in Japan, its search function is not optimized for the Japanese language, which was a challenge for many business operators who sell large numbers of products. Utilized by more than 250 major Japanese E-Commerce websites, “NaviPlus Search” developed by NaviPlus is the number-one^*3 internal search engine according to publicly

announced data on companies using this service. It offers high-level search precision tailored to the complex characteristics of the Japanese language, as well as excellent search usability and advanced system performance. NaviPlus and Huckleberry decided to offer the “NaviPlus Search” Shopify app as a search engine optimized for the Japanese language to resolve issues related to Shopify’s search function.

■ Future developments
By expanding the functionality of the “NaviPlus Search” Shopify app and other types of technological collaboration, NaviPlus and Huckleberry will offer better convenience to E-Commerce business operators and help them increase sales. NaviPlus also offers recommendation and review management services in addition to “NaviPlus Search” and is considering adapting these marketing solutions as Shopify apps that will help E-Commerce business operators attract customers.

E-Commerce and retail business operators must provide purchasing experiences aligned with the major lifestyle and industrial changes underway. Based on the DG FinTech Shift, a Group strategy that integrates payments and data, the DG Group is centralizing its diverse range of solutions—including attracting customers, marketing, and cashless payments—to support unified DX by E-Commerce business operators and their business growth.

【“NaviPlus Search” Shopify app】
Please visit the following website for more information and to download the app.
https://apps.shopify.com/naviplus-search?locale=ja
* The app is provided by Huckleberry.

【Online seminar commemorating the app release】
To commemorate the Shopify app release, an online seminar will be held for E-Commerce business operators who sell many different products.
It will provide information about internal search methods as a UX improvement measure to prevent user churn on E-Commerce websites and increase conversion.

Name: Internal Search Methods to Prevent User Churn and Increase Conversion
Date and time: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., November 25, 2022
Format: Online
Details/how to apply: Please apply via the seminar page.
https://peatix.com/event/3344433/view

【About the NaviPlus Series】https://www.naviplus.co.jp/
The NaviPlus Series is an integrated marketing solution combining recommendation, internal search, review, and email retargeting engines. It optimizes content and navigation for customers arriving at a website and maximizes sales opportunities. The NaviPlus Series provides comprehensive services with peace of mind for marketing by E-Commerce business operators who want to carry out suitable measures and achieve reliable results with limited budgets.

【About NaviPlus】https://corporate.naviplus.co.jp/
This technology company provides marketing solutions and other offerings optimized for E-Commerce website content and navigation based on its corporate mission of “Using technology to bring many ‘pluses’ for the future.” As a member of the DG Group’s Financial Technology Segment, drawing together its payment and FinTech businesses, NaviPlus works with DG Financial Technology, Inc. (a payment service provider and the segment’s central company) by utilizing technology to resolve issues experienced by E-Commerce business operators and consumers, thereby offering a great deal of value to society.

*1: Source: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry “2021 E-commerce Transaction Market Survey” (August 2022)
*2: Source: Shopify Japan Co., Ltd. “Announcement on 2020 Shopify Growth Rate” (February 26, 2021)
*3: Source: NaviPlus survey on the number of logos of websites using search services, from the official websites of vendors that provide these services to E-Commerce websites.