Nina Jobst
Research expert covering South Korea
Convenience stores in South Korea - statistics & facts
Convenience stores can be found almost everywhere in South Korea. They are mostly franchised, easily accessible retail businesses of smaller sales areas, offering everyday items. Those in South Korea provide additional services such as seating areas, microwaves, postal services, charging transportation cards or paying utility fees, and sometimes even selling gold items or houses. They have become an important retail channel, having the second-largest share in offline retail sales in South Korea.
South Korea's convenience store market leaders
The South Korean convenience store market were predominantly led by GS25 and CU. GS25 is a convenience store chain owned by GS Retail from the GS group. It was the first convenience store chain in the country. CU is a chain brand by BGF Retail, and a recent survey found that it was the most visited convenience store brand. In the most recent year, GS25 slightly outperformed CU in terms of revenue. However, when it comes to the number of stores nationwide, CU had a somewhat more significant number of stores. Other than these two giants, Seven Eleven bought Ministop recently hoping to increase its position in the market.What are popular convenience store products in South Korea?
While by far not among the preferred channels to shop for processed foods among South Korean customers, it is noteworthy that beverages and processed foods made up the major product sales share in convenience stores. Besides snacks and instant noodles, or seasonal popular items, such as cups of ice for cooled drinks in the summer, convenience stores are extending their product range of healthier foods, offering more fruits and vegetables. Stores also offer home meal replacements (HMR) and other easily prepared convenience foods.
