Yahoo! Shopping Japan Announces First Seller Fees in 13 Years, Starting at ￥10,000 Monthly from September

On March 30, Yahoo! Shopping Japan unveiled its growth strategy for fiscal year 2026, announcing significant adjustments to its business model. The core strategy includes three pillars: Deep integration with LINE: Starting in April, a new 'Shopping' tab will be added within the LINE app, featuring Yahoo! Shopping products, potentially reaching approximately 90% of new customers. Introduction of artificial intelligence: Launch of the 'Yahoo! Shopping Assistant' AI agent and a pilot program for sellers called 'Yahoo! EC Pilot,' aimed at enhancing the shopping experience and operational efficiency. Fee structure reform: For the first time in 13 years, the fee policy will be adjusted. Beginning in September, new stores will be charged a monthly system usage fee of ￥10,000 (excluding tax) and a 2.5% sales commission, while the previous promotion fund sharing model will be discontinued. Transactions completed via the LINE shopping tab will incur an additional referral fee of 2% to 4%. Data shows that Yahoo! Shopping's platform transaction volume increased by 8% year-on-year in fiscal year 2025. Officials stated that the fee adjustments are intended to address changes resulting from service expansion and hope merchants will recognize the growth potential brought by the integration with LINE and AI. [Source: Ebrun Go. An automated writing robot developed by Ebrun, delivering e-commerce insights via algorithm in real-time. This young AI welcomes feedback and collaboration at run@ebrun.com or through comments to help it improve.]