ZETA (6031) FY2026 Q2 Earnings Deep Dive: Entering a New Growth Phase via Structural Reform, 'Agentic Commerce,' and Retail Media

ZETA Corporation , a provider of high-precision search engines and recommendation functions for the e-commerce sector, released its financial results for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 2026. While the results reflect a temporary dip in performance during a transitional period, they also demonstrate steady progress in rebuilding robust assets and launching new businesses for future leaps in growth.

This report scrutinizes key topics from the disclosure materials, providing a multi-faceted analysis of the company's growth story—from its current earnings structure and the strengths of the "ZETA CX Series" to its "Agentic Commerce" strategy leveraging generative AI and the rapid growth of its "Retail Media Advertising" business.

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1. FY2026 Q2 Earnings Highlights and Current Transformation

For the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 2026, ZETA reported net sales of 789 million yen (down 16.1% YoY) and operating profit of 67 million yen (down 67.4% YoY) . The progress rate against the full-year plan stands at 37.6% for net sales and 13.5% for operating profit, indicating a decline in both revenue and profit on the surface.

[Slide Commentary: Why this slide is important]

The Executive Summary slide above most symbolically represents the gap between the superficial financial figures in this earnings report and the positive business changes occurring behind the scenes . While the figures themselves are down year-on-year, it is noteworthy that "the results of structural reforms are becoming evident, with quarterly order intake and June's monthly new sales both hitting high levels," and that "retail media advertising is growing rapidly, up 170.6% YoY." The current decline in revenue and profit is temporary, stemming from business restructuring and upfront investments, while leading indicators such as order intake and new sales show signs of a V-shaped recovery.

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2. The Stable Revenue Foundation: The Overwhelming Share and Competitive Edge of the "ZETA CX Series"

Supporting the foundation of ZETA's growth story is the "ZETA CX Series," a suite of solutions designed to improve customer experience (CX) for e-commerce sites.

This series consists of a wide range of products, including the on-site search engine "ZETA SEARCH," the AI recommendation engine "ZETA RECOMMEND," the review/Q&A management tool "ZETA VOICE," and the hashtag utilization tool "ZETA HASHTAG." These function not merely as software, but as a stock revenue base that provides stable monthly recurring income.

Overwhelming Track Record of the "ZETA CX Series"

• Adoption rate among Japan's Top 100 EC sites : Over 30% (adopted by approximately one-third of top-tier e-commerce sites)
• Cumulative number of EC sites implemented : 246 sites
• Data assets managed : Over 17.5 million reviews/Q&As, over 115,000 generated hashtags

Boasting technical prowess that achieves performance levels comparable to Google in A/B testing, the company's search engine has been adopted by numerous major domestic corporations, including Kao, Shiseido, Panasonic, and Mitsui Fudosan. This vast implementation base and customer network serve as a powerful advantage for the company's newly launched growth businesses.

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3. The Arrival of the "Agentic Commerce" Era and the "ZETA LINK" Technical Foundation

The e-commerce market is currently undergoing a major shift from an era where "users search for products by typing keywords into a search bar" to one where "users consult with AI in natural language, and the AI proposes and compares the best products." ZETA defines this as "Agentic Commerce."

The biggest challenge in Agentic Commerce is "hallucination," where generative AI produces factually incorrect information. To solve this, ZETA has developed "Agentic Search (Advanced RAG)," which highly integrates the company's proprietary 1st-party data (real-time inventory/price information, over 17.5 million reviews, etc.) with external AI agents.

[Slide Commentary: Why this slide is important]

The ZETA LINK slide above illustrates the position the company aims to secure in terms of technological hegemony in the generative AI era . Major AI platformers such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are each promoting their own connection standards (protocols) such as "UCP," "MCP," "ACP," "A2A," and "AP2." "ZETA LINK" functions as a "Generative AI Integration Hub" that absorbs and consolidates these fragmented standards, connecting the company's product suite (ZETA SEARCH, ZETA VOICE, etc.) with AI agents. By building this infrastructure, a structure is completed where accurate e-commerce data is supplied via ZETA, regardless of which AI platform achieves dominance.

Furthermore, the company has already taken a lead in supporting "Apps in ChatGPT," realizing a digital shelf experience that allows for product proposals and recommendations directly within the ChatGPT interface.

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4. Accelerating Rapid Growth: "Retail Media Advertising Business (ZETA AD)" and Organizational Strengthening

Expanding rapidly as the "second pillar of growth" following the existing CX series is the Retail Media Advertising business (ZETA AD) . In the second quarter, this business achieved a high growth rate of 170.6% year-on-year .

With the tightening of third-party cookie regulations, advertisers (manufacturers and brands) are rapidly strengthening ad placements within e-commerce sites (utilizing 1st-party data) where consumers' direct purchasing intent is concentrated. ZETA AD provides a mechanism to display optimal advertisements linked to "search queries" and "browsing/purchase history" on e-commerce sites.

Proven High Advertising Effectiveness

• CTR (Click-Through Rate) : Improved to 2.4x
• ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) : Improved to 1.4x
• Purchase Rate : Increased to 2.5x

To further accelerate business expansion, the company has appointed Mr. Muneaki Furuya, formerly of Dentsu, as CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) . By fusing the knowledge and networks cultivated at a major advertising agency, the company is building a robust structure to capture advertising budgets from national clients and scale the business.

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5. Maximizing Media Value through the New "AI Commerce Media (VOICE)" Business

The third growth axis promoted by ZETA is the launch of a new business, "AI Commerce Media (VOICE)," which consolidates the company's own assets.

[Slide Commentary: Why this slide is important]

The slide above (ZETA's Business Domains) shows the overall picture of how the company's business structure overlaps to bring about revenue expansion . It visualizes a three-in-one growth ecosystem where the "ZETA CX Series" on the left serves as the foundation for solid stock revenue and primary data (17.5 million UGC), which is then utilized to develop "Retail Media Advertising" (top right) and "AI Commerce Media (VOICE)" (bottom right).

"VOICE" is a concept aiming to become one of Japan's largest review media platforms, aggregating over 17.5 million high-quality review data points collected from 246 domestic e-commerce sites, allowing users to perform purchase comparisons through AI.

The materials cite leading major players as benchmarks, such as @cosme (market cap approx. 45 billion yen), Tabelog (market cap approx. 700 billion yen, revenue approx. 40 billion yen), and Kakaku.com (market cap approx. 700 billion yen, revenue approx. 23 billion yen). By establishing a massive media platform that combines reviews with generative AI, the company aims to achieve overwhelming media revenue and corporate value enhancement that transcends traditional SaaS-based business models.

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6. Alliance Expansion, Alignment with National Policy, and Future Outlook

To drive business, the company is also accelerating strong partnership strategies with external partners:

• Checkout.com : Realizing seamless purchasing and payment experiences in the AI era
• Channel Talk : Improving CX through AI-driven conversational support on e-commerce sites
• LIVEX AI : Interactive AI product proposals on in-store signage
• NEO JAPAN : Expanding channels as the first domestic reseller partner

Furthermore, the Japanese Cabinet Office's AI strategy emphasizes the "priority promotion of Vertical AI (AI specialized for specific industries/tasks)," and ZETA's AI technology, specialized for the e-commerce and commerce sectors, has high affinity with national policy guidelines .

Future Outlook and New Mid-Term Management Plan

Global AI spending is projected to grow at a CAGR of 28%, reaching $631 billion (over 90 trillion yen) by 2028 , with the retail industry being one of the top three promising markets for AI investment.

Against the backdrop of market segment changes, the full-scale operation of new businesses, and the V-shaped recovery of existing businesses, ZETA is planning to disclose a new "Mid-Term Management Plan." Having emerged from a temporary structural reform period, the company has mapped out a scenario to maximize mid-term corporate value through three axes: "solid CX stock revenue," "rapidly growing retail media advertising," and "next-generation Agentic Commerce & AI media."