1.5 Million Won Wine Sold Out... CU Launches Year-End Campaign to Attract Wine Enthusiasts

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CU is expanding its online wine shop products to about 120 items, ranging from high-end to mid-to-low priced wines, as it targets wine enthusiasts for the year-end season.

This month, CU has restocked all five major Ch?teau wines in the O2O (online-to-offline) service 'CU Wine Shop,' which allows customers to pre-order desired products through the 'Pocket CU' application and pick them up at stores. Additionally, CU exclusively launched a 6-bottle set of Ancien Temps, a Berlin Wine Trophy award-winning wine that has recently become a hot topic in online wine communities.

Ancien Temps is a popular product that has surpassed 300,000 cumulative sales in South Korea alone, receiving praise in online communities of wine lovers as a 'best value-for-money wine ever' and an 'entry-level wine for beginners.' In fact, the 2-bottle set of Ancien Temps (30,000 KRW), exclusively introduced by CU in August, recorded the highest sales volume in the CU Wine Shop.

Building on this popularity, the newly released 6-bottle set of Ancien Temps this month consists of five bottles of red wine and one bottle of white wine from the Ancien Temps series, priced competitively at 75,000 KRW, making it more affordable than the 2-bottle set.

At CU stores, until the end of this month, customers can enjoy a 25% discount when paying with Naver Pay or BC Paybook on five popular wines including Diablo and Montes. Additionally, some imported liquors such as Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff Apple, and Bells are being sold at discounts of up to 21%, offering a variety of promotional events.

Meanwhile, the number of customers seeking wine at convenience stores is steadily increasing. In August, CU launched the five major Ch?teau wines through the CU Wine Shop. These five major Ch?teau wines are classified as special first-class wines with limited production, and despite each bottle costing well over 1 million KRW, they continued to sell out.

The most popular item among the five major Ch?teau wines was Ch?teau Latour (1.5 million KRW), with about 20 bottles sold, making it the highest-priced among the five. Ch?teau Margaux (1.5 million KRW), the most famous Ch?teau in Korea, and Ch?teau Haut-Brion (1 million KRW), known as the wine loved by King George IV of England, also sold more than 10 bottles each.

CU analyzed that unlike specialized wine shops, convenience stores offer greater purchasing convenience and price competitiveness, leading to an increase in customers seeking premium wines at convenience stores. At CU Wine Shop, customers can conveniently reserve products via the app without having to inquire about stock and pick them up at a nearby CU store on the same or next day. Also, by purchasing products through large-scale importers and reducing intermediary costs, prices have been lowered to offline minimum levels.

Seohye-won, MD of the Beverage and Food Team at BGF Retail, said, “Department stores and offline wine shops, which were the main sales channels for high-end wines, have become difficult to visit due to COVID-19, so customers are turning to CU Wine Shop, which is convenient and offers various benefits. As the age groups and tastes of wine seekers diversify, CU plans to present a wide lineup ranging from unique wines such as Year of the Ox commemorative wines and wines featured in movies to value-for-money products.”

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