Convenience Store Wine Boom... Exclusive Brand Launches and Dedicated Wine Apps

The appearance of Emart24's liquor specialty store.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] It is the golden age of convenience store wine. As the number of single-person households increases, the number of consumers using convenience stores has greatly increased, and recently, due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the number of 'home drinking' consumers has risen, leading to soaring sales of convenience store wine.

According to the convenience store industry on the 1st, Emart24's wine sales in the first half of this year grew by 215% compared to the same period last year. The rapid growth in Emart24's wine sales was largely due to the role of liquor specialty stores.

Liquor specialty stores are spaces within convenience stores where dedicated shelves are installed to display wine, whiskey, and other alcoholic beverages. Currently, these stores sell a total of about 230 types of liquor, including around 150 types of wine and 70 types of whiskey, and have expanded to 2,027 locations just 1 year and 5 months after launching. The target market is young home drinkers in their 20s and 30s, and they implement a 'cost-effectiveness strategy' by stocking 80% of the store's liquor with wines priced between 10,000 and 20,000 KRW.

As part of the cost-effectiveness strategy, a super low-priced wine priced at 4,900 KRW, launched last year, sold 2 million bottles in just one year. Considering that the most popular wine brand in Korea sells up to 1 million bottles annually across all distribution channels, the sales volume of Dos Copas is record-breaking.

Emart24 also launched an exclusive wine brand called 'Como.' It is a cost-effective wine brand offering wines from regions such as Chile, Italy, Argentina, and France at prices under 10,000 KRW, aiming to differentiate itself in the growing wine market.

As the popularity of wine continues to rise, the convenience store industry has recently been significantly enhancing wine assortments and related services. GS25 recently introduced Wine25 Plus. It is an online liquor ordering and payment system where customers can order and pay for liquor through The Pop, GS Retail's integrated mobile app (formerly the 'My Fridge' app), and pick up their orders at their desired GS25 store.

CU started a reservation purchase service called 'CU Wine Shop,' which allows customers to order desired liquor to be delivered to stores. Customers can reserve desired liquor through CU's membership application 'Pocket CU' and pick it up at a designated CU store on the specified date. In about 500 stores in Seoul, if a reservation is made before 9 a.m., the order can be picked up from 6 p.m. the same day at the designated store. In stores that introduced the 'Wine Shop,' wine sales jumped by an average of 232.5%.

Seven Eleven opened the 'Seven App' wine reservation order service in April. The wines sold on the Seven App number 21 types, all exclusive to the app. Among them are high-end wines such as Ch?teau Margaux and Ch?teau Haut-Brion. Since the introduction of the wine reservation order service, Seven Eleven's wine sales rate soared by 60.3%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.