In Japan, the trend of completing the transaction process from research and comparison to sign-up completely online has been growing, not only for business-to-consumer (B2C), but also for business-to-business (B2B). In this context, websites have evolved beyond being merely a way to introduce a company and instead now serve as a major revenue channel supporting day-to-day operations.

On the other hand, many businesses with an online presence often feel their sites are just for delivering information or they would be difficult to monetize. In reality, monetizing a site doesn’t require special expertise or large-scale systems. Still, it is important to choose an option that aligns with the goal and to follow the correct procedures.

In this article, we will provide a clear, straightforward explanation of the methods and steps for monetizing a website in Japan, along with the key points to success.

What’s in this article?

• The market size of ecommerce
  
• How to monetize a website
  
• Steps to monetizing a website
  
• Useful tools for monetizing a website
  
• Key points to successful monetization of a website
  
• How Stripe Checkout can help
  

The market size of ecommerce

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Market Survey on Electronic Commerce for Fiscal Year 2024, the size of the domestic ecommerce market in the country in 2024 is as follows:

Market size

• B2C ecommerce: Approximately ¥26.1 trillion (5.1% increase from the previous year)
  
• B2B ecommerce: Approximately ¥514.4 trillion (10.6% increase from the previous year)
  

Ecommerce penetration rate (the proportion of the ecommerce market size relative to the total value of all commercial transactions)

• B2C: 9.8%
  
• B2B: 43.1%
  

This data reveals that ecommerce has become widely established in consumer purchases and dealings between businesses. For B2B in particular, the figures show that online exchanges account for a high proportion of overall commercial transactions. This indicates that digitalization is steadily advancing within corporate activities.

With this background in mind, websites need to move beyond supplying details and strategically drive revenue.

How to monetize a website

There are numerous ways to monetize a webpage, and the most suitable approach varies depending on the industry, commercial model, and site purpose. What are the ways to actually make money with a digital channel? Let’s take a look at some representative commercialization methods that are relatively straightforward to put in place and common across many businesses:

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing enables websites to earn performance-based commissions by promoting products or services, making it particularly well-suited to data-focused sites.

Sites focused on specific themes or specialized fields can easily and naturally introduce offerings in line with audience challenges, interests, and concerns. This allows a web media page to create sustainable monetization.

Ad revenue

Ad revenue on websites primarily consists of pay-per-click and outcome-based models. In exchange for displaying ads on a page, your business can receive advertising fees tied to the number of impressions or clicks.

While Google AdSense is probably the best-known example, there are also other options, including joining an ad network or directly contracting with companies to display advertisements. Pages at or above a certain level of traffic can expect stable income by consistently publishing material. However, depending on how ads are displayed, there is a risk of compromising the user experience, so it is worth implementing ads with the site’s goal and audience in mind.

Sell products and services

Providing your company’s products and services through a digital channel is one of the primary ways to monetize. There are various forms, such as accepting applications or registrations for solutions and offering subscription-based services designed for ongoing use.

Options that integrate with Instagram and other social media are also gaining traction as alternatives to regular ecommerce.

Steps to monetizing a website

Once a monetization method is selected, the next major step is designing and running the page appropriately. Next, we’ll introduce the fundamental steps common to many operations, regardless of their industry or business model:

Clarify the site’s purpose

First, consider the website’s ultimate purpose. Clarify the direction, and decide whether the focus centers on supplying info, handling inquiries and sign-ups, or driving product sales. Doing so determines the page’s overall layout and ensures content consistency.

Register with the necessary service platforms

Depending on the site’s earning structure, registration with affiliate service providers, ad-serving support, and similar platforms are needed.

When participating in partner networks, decide which program to join. If a page is registered in categories unrelated to your company’s website, achieving high-performance-based rewards gets harder. It’s worth participating in networks aligned with the site’s resources.

Create content

Your online presence must not be self-indulgent or self-serving. Instead, focus on creating content built around the information your users are actually looking for. When participating in affiliate programs, don’t forget the tracking links. After launch, keep improving the page by updating its material in response to feedback, conversion rates, CPA, and other data.

Useful tools for monetizing a website

When building a revenue-generating web platform, remember everything doesn’t have to be built in-house. By skillfully combining tools suited to your objectives, such as usage insights, production, registrations, and checkout, it’s possible to minimize the amount of operational work while maximizing results. Here’s an introduction to some resources commonly used when running a site:

Site analysis and traffic analytics

Using site analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console helps reveal how users interact with it. These insights highlight visitor behavior—e.g., which pages attract views and where drop-offs occur—alongside search performance. Reviewing material and user flow from this data allows monetization strategies to be refined and strengthened.

Content creation and management

These resources help efficiently create and manage articles and pages. For websites continuously publishing information, it is key to establish an environment that facilitates simple updates.

Payment, contracts, and sign-ups

When selling products or services, it is worth ensuring the sequence from sign-up and conclusion of a contract to final payment is as smooth as possible. If the procedures are unclear, it can lead to cart abandonment. It also frequently increases the daily operational burden on the business side, including verifying registration details, handling billing, and providing customer support.

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have been addressing issues in these areas by using external offerings and simplifying day-to-day work to complete them entirely online. For instance, if you want to create a checkout page, using a payment processing solution such as Stripe Checkout lets you build a simple flow from sign-up to payment directly on your website.

Key points to successful monetization of a website

Monetizing a website involves combining methods tailored to an organization’s size and day-to-day setup. However, to ensure success, pay close attention to the following:

Be mindful of traffic from search engines

If you keep themes and keywords that are simple to look up in mind while creating content, expect a stable stream of traffic from search engines.

Another approach is to review Google’s published ranking guidelines, then examine the site’s overall structure and info organization. Consistently implemented basic measures will form the foundation for long-term monetization and profitability.

Expand inbound traffic by using social media

Sharing data through discoverability and across social media creates new points of contact with potential customers. In Japan, there is a tendency to place importance on the accuracy and clarity of details, as well as on the visual impression, so keep those tips in mind when communicating.

Regularly update and improve your site

Keeping information fresh and up-to-date, and making yours a site that users can trust, will help monetization. The process doesn’t have to be particularly difficult; conduct periodic reviews of the content and apply minor, continuous improvements.

How Stripe Checkout can help

Stripe Checkout is a fully customizable prebuilt payment form that makes it easy for you to accept payments on your website or application.

Checkout can help you:

• Increase conversion: Checkout’s mobile-optimized design and one-click checkout flow make it simple for customers to input and reuse their payment information.
  
• Reduce development time: Embed Checkout directly into your site, or direct customers to a Stripe-hosted page, with just a few lines of code.
  
• Improve security: Checkout handles sensitive card data, simplifying PCI compliance.
  
• Expand globally: Localize pricing in 100+ currencies with Adaptive Pricing, which supports 30+ languages and dynamically displays the payment methods most likely to improve conversion.
  
• Use advanced features: Integrate Checkout with other Stripe products, such as Billing for subscriptions, Radar for fraud prevention, and more.
  
• Maintain control: Fully customize the checkout experience, including saving payment methods and setting up post-purchase actions.
  

Learn more about how Checkout can optimize your payment flow, or get started today.