Convenience store chain Lawson Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp. will launch a joint shopping website for smartphone users by December, company officials said Thursday.

The companies are banking the handsets will become consumers' shopping tool of choice.

Beforehand, the partners will set up a similar computer-based site around August with the aim of pulling in some 60 million customers for both computer and phone services.

The smartphone service will make use of the versatile phones' global positioning systems to direct customers to nearby Lawson stores.