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Selling online in Korea: Smart Store, Coupang, and Instagram without checkout
There are three ways to sell online in Korea. Naver Smart Store (스마트스토어), Coupang (쿠팡), and your own shop on your own domain. The first two already have the customers and charge fees; the third charges no commission but you must bring the customers. Below is what the fee documents say, with the effective dates, because these numbers change.
Smart Store has two fee layers
Naver Smart Store, "Settlement: types of fees"스마트스토어를 통한 상품 판매로 인해 부과되는 수수료는 2가지 종류가 있으며, 유형에 따라 아래와 같이 적용됩니다.
Our rendering: "Fees on Smart Store sales are of two kinds, applied as follows by type."
| Applied to | Npay fee | Naver Shopping sales fee |
|---|---|---|
| Item price | Yes | Yes |
| Initial shipping | Yes | No |
| Return and exchange shipping | Yes | No |
The Npay fee is the payment and order-management layer. Since 1 October 2025 it runs from 1.947% for the smallest merchant tier to 3.630% for the general tier, VAT included. New sellers start on the general tier. Naver's document says merchants later classified into a lower tier are refunded the difference for the previous half-year. Tiers are set from tax-office revenue and updated on 14 February and 14 August.
The Naver Shopping sales fee is the marketplace layer, and one of four rates always applies. It is 3% for a Smart Store sale and 4% for a Brand Store sale. When the seller brought the customer, those drop to 1% and 2%.
Same document판매자가 직접 네이버 내부 또는 외부에서 광고 및 홍보를 통해 유입한 고객이 상품을 구매한 경우, 판매자 마케팅 수수료가 적용되어 낮은 수수료가 과금됩니다.
Our rendering: "When a customer the seller brought in through its own advertising or promotion, inside or outside Naver, makes a purchase, the lower seller-marketing fee applies."
This is the one place in Korean e-commerce where marketing shows up in the settlement statement as a number. On a 10,000-won order at the general tier, the document's own example gives 9,337 won settled for an organic sale and 9,537 won when you brought the customer. That 200-won gap, counted over a quarter, is the cleanest measure of whether your Korean marketing is working.
Coupang fees depend on category and are locked at listing
Coupang, "Sales fees by category"상품이 등록된 후에는 카테고리를 변경할 수 없습니다.
Our rendering: "The category cannot be changed after the product is listed."
Base rates by top-level category run from 7.8% (household goods, electronics) through 9.6% (beauty), 10% (baby, automotive), 10.5% (fashion), 10.6% (food) to 10.8% (furniture, books, kitchen, toys, pets). Sub-categories vary further. Coupang states that fees are charged on the discounted price and that it does not double-charge payment fees. If Coupang decides your category was wrong, it may reassign it and apply that category's rate. The table does not say whether VAT is included; Naver's does. Keep that in mind when comparing.
Instagram checkout does not exist in Korea
Meta, "Commerce eligibility requirements"Facebook과 Instagram 결제 기능은 현재 미국에서만 사용할 수 있습니다.
Our rendering: "Facebook and Instagram checkout is currently available only in the United States."
Korea is one of seven Asia-Pacific markets where Meta kept shops after its 2023 regional cutback, so product tags still work. But they only send the customer to your website. The purchase happens on your own shop, and conversion tracking must live there for Meta's learning phase to have anything to learn from. Meta also asks for a single, unshortened domain that your account represents and may require domain verification. A shop hosted under someone else's domain, such as a Smart Store address, may struggle with that step. The document does not say Smart Store is ineligible, so we do not say it either.
Mobile first, by a wide margin
Korea's statistics office reported online shopping of 24.6 trillion won in June 2026, with 76.9% of it on mobile. Product photos and detail pages are seen on a phone first. B