Convenience Store Parcel Delivery Increases by 30%... CU Partners with Naver for Parcel Reservation Service

Convenience Store Scenes Changed by COVID-19, Parcel Delivery Usage Increases 27.9% Quarterly

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-sun] BGF Retail's convenience store CU expects the number of convenience store parcel users to increase further due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and will start a parcel reservation service together with Naver from the 31st.

This service allows customers to easily and conveniently reserve CU parcels not only through the existing CU Post website or Pocket CU app but also via Naver. By searching keywords such as 'CU,' 'CU parcel,' 'convenience store parcel,' or 'Naver convenience store parcel' on Naver, users can select a nearby CU store based on location, enter reservation information, and prepay using Naver Points, etc.

Within two weeks, customers visit the selected store, press the shopping mall reception button on the unmanned parcel machine Postbox, enter the approval number received during the reservation, measure the weight, and attach the shipping label to complete the reception.

CU is implementing this service because the number of people using convenience store parcels has significantly increased as non-face-to-face lifestyles have spread. Analyzing the parcel service usage status at CU this year, the number of parcel uses surged sharply with the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of the year, showing an increase of about 30% compared to the previous year.

Looking at the quarterly growth rates of CU's parcel usage this year, it steadily increased from 21.5% in Q1 to 25.8% in Q2, 29.5% in Q3, and 30.5% in Q4, with an overall growth rate of 27.9%. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the growth rate of parcel usage in January was less than 3%, but it soared to 28% from February when the spread began in earnest, and this double-digit growth continued until the end of the year. In particular, the growth rates in March, June, and December, which correspond to the 1st to 3rd major pandemic waves, were 34.5%, 33.3%, and 38.0%, respectively, ranking highest among the 12 months. This was because the number of times goods were exchanged via parcels increased as social distancing measures were strengthened.

Over the past three years, CU's parcel usage growth rates compared to the previous year were 8.0% in 2017, 13.0% in 2018, and 9.5% in 2019, showing a moderate growth trend. This year, due to COVID-19, the demand exploded as non-face-to-face lifestyles spread. The number of new members joining CU Post, CU's parcel service, increased by 18.4% compared to the previous year, and the CU-to-CU parcel service using its own logistics network, launched last March, saw usage increase by a remarkable 10 times by the end of this year.

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