Accepting Naver Pay as a merchant
Naver Pay is the digital wallet of the South Korean internet company NAVER, and is operated by NAVER Financial Corp. from Seongnam. The shopper links a card or bank account to the wallet, can hold Naver Pay money and points, and confirms a payment in the app. For a merchant in Europe it is a cross-border method: you sell to shoppers in Korea, the payment is processed in won, and a PSP carries it to you. The questions that matter come after the order is paid: how long a refund stays possible, which basket limit applies to you, and what a shopper on a laptop has to do to pay.
Published prices for Naver PayPer provider, country and channel, further down this pageGo to the pricesHow to accept Naver Pay as a merchant
For a merchant established in Europe the route is a PSP that carries Naver Pay cross-border. Antom lists the EEA and the United Kingdom among the merchant entity locations for Naver Pay, and states that no local entity registration in South Korea and no additional financial licence is required; its review typically takes five to ten business days. With Novalnet the merchant enables the method in the Novalnet Admin Portal, and PayPal lists NaverPay among the alternative payment methods on its fee pages.
The PSP also decides the currency you are paid in. Antom processes Naver Pay in won and states that it supports settlement in USD, EUR and SGD. Novalnet lists the won as both processing and settlement currency. Agree the settlement currency before you go live, because it decides who converts and at what rate.
Rails
Naver Pay is a wallet in front of Korean cards, accounts and a stored balance
A Naver Pay payment is funded from what the shopper holds in the wallet: a linked card, a linked bank account, or Naver Pay money and points. Novalnet describes the online flow as a redirect to a payment page, a QR code scanned in the app and a six-digit PIN. Antom returns the payment result in real time. For you the method behaves like a redirect wallet: authorised in the app, confirmed to your PSP, settled by your PSP.
Antom lists full and partial refunds as supported for Naver Pay and chargebacks and disputes as not supported. There is no issuer dispute cycle to manage, and the refund you initiate is the only way money goes back to the shopper.
Where Naver Pay is used, online and in store
Naver Pay is a South Korean wallet, and the index lists South Korea as its only shopper country. Online, a European merchant offers it to shoppers in Korea, with the amount processed in won. Antom sets a minimum payment of 100 won.
In store the picture is different. NAVER announced in November 2023 that its QR payment service had been extended to Alipay+ merchants across 42 countries and regions, Europe included, and that on-site payments with Naver Pay are available in 47 countries and regions in total. The traveller pays from Naver Pay money or points, topped up from the linked account in steps of 10,000 won. A European shop that accepts Alipay+ can therefore receive Naver Pay from Korean visitors without a separate Naver Pay set-up.
Pricing
PayPal publishes a rate for Naver Pay, the other providers do not
NAVER publishes no merchant rate for cross-border acceptance, and the index holds no published rate from Antom or Novalnet. PayPal does publish one. Its fee pages place NaverPay among the alternative payment methods at 5.49% plus a fixed fee: 0.35 euro for euros received in most European countries, 0.39 euro in Germany, and a local fixed fee for payments received in pounds, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish or Czech crowns, złoty or forint. The Austrian page adds that there is no international surcharge on alternative payment methods.
On a 120 euro order, 5.49% plus 0.35 euro comes to 6.94 euro, and 6.98 euro with the German fixed fee. On 1 million euro of Korean volume at an average order of 120 euro, the published rate comes to about 57,800 euro a year, and every percentage point off the rate is worth 10,000 euro.
These are published list prices and the example is illustrative; the quoted rate decides what you actually pay. Ask Antom and Novalnet for a quoted rate on the same volume before you accept PayPal's as the price of the method.
Refunds
Refunds close after 365 days, and there is no chargeback behind them
Antom gives a refund period of 365 days for Naver Pay. Within that window you can refund in full or in part to the wallet. After it, the route back to the wallet is closed, and because the method has no chargeback the shopper has no route of their own either.
For most returns a year is ample. It is not ample for a warranty claim, a pre-order delivered late, a deposit returned after an event, or a long trial period on furniture or mattresses. Those refunds then need another channel, for example a bank transfer to an account in Korea, with its own cost and its own request for the shopper's details. Set your longest refund case against the 365 days before you switch the method on, and ask Novalnet and PayPal which window applies on their route.
Contract
Your merchant category sets the basket limit, so have it confirmed in writing
Antom's documentation sets lower Naver Pay limits for merchants in high-risk categories: internet broadcasting, games, game items, gift cards and top-ups. For gift cards and top-ups a payment from the wallet balance is capped at 500,000 won per transaction and 2,000,000 won per day. The same documentation states that wallets may change their limits for internal reasons such as risk policy.
A payment above a cap cannot be completed with Naver Pay. Have your PSP confirm in writing which category it files you under, which limits follow from it, and how you are told when a limit changes.
On a desktop the payment moves to the phone
Novalnet describes the Naver Pay flow as a QR code on the payment page, scanned in the app and confirmed with a six-digit PIN. Antom states that its PC flow needs additional integration and opens a new tab after login, and gives a default timeout of 14 minutes.
A shopper on a laptop therefore completes the payment on a second device, within a fixed time. Report Naver Pay completion separately for desktop and mobile, and test the desktop flow end to end before you judge the method on its conversion.
Which payment providers support Naver Pay
In the index, Antom (Ant International), Novalnet and PayPal offer Naver Pay to merchants established in Europe. All three carry it cross-border: the shopper pays in Korea, and you are paid in Europe.
The questions to put to each are the same: the rate against PayPal's published 5.49%, the settlement currency, the refund window, the limits for your category, and how the desktop flow is built.
Reviewing what Naver Pay costs you
What you pay for Naver Pay is set in your agreement with your PSP, not by NAVER. Start by establishing whether you are overpaying your PSP, and where Korea is a material share of your volume, get a quoted rate from more than one provider before you renew.
Relevant markets: South Korea
Payment set-up check
Selling to shoppers in South Korea? Let's check what Naver Pay costs you through your PSP.
Enter your webshop. The check sets your checkout against what shoppers in each of your markets expect, and names the gaps. If you want, it then calculates what those gaps cost you in euros.
Ramon Helwegen
