Convenience Stores Conquer the Wine Market... Record-High Sales

Sales from January to August this year surpass last year's
New products launched ahead of the year-end peak season

A customer is looking at wine in the liquor specialty store of Emart24.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Following the surge in craft beer sales during the summer, convenience stores have now taken over the wine market as well. With the spread of COVID-19 leading to an increase in ‘home drinking’ where people enjoy wine at home, convenience store wine sales have reached record highs. Convenience stores are launching a large number of new wines in the second half of the year to aggressively target the market. As a result, the variety of wines is gradually expanding from ultra-low-priced wines to premium wines.

According to the convenience store industry on the 3rd, wine sales from January to August this year have already surpassed last year’s total wine sales. CU recorded sales 27.7% higher than last year’s wine sales, GS25 exceeded by 4.7%, 7-Eleven by 35%, and Emart24 by 11%. As the peak wine season of autumn and winter approaches, convenience stores are expecting record-breaking wine sales this year. Looking at the monthly wine sales of the four major convenience stores last year, sales from September to December accounted for about half of the total annual sales. In fact, at Emart24, wine sales during the last four months of last year accounted for 51% of total sales, with wine sales sharply increasing toward the end of the year.

Convenience stores have begun to intensify their market strategies by introducing new wine products starting this month. CU and Emart24 are competing with premium wines. CU launched the third edition of its own wine brand ‘Eum!’ with a premium wine. Although this is the first time ‘Eum!’ has introduced wines priced over 10,000 won, it maximized quality while maintaining the brand identity of offering cost-effective daily wines. Emart24 introduced the premium wine of the month, ‘Unanime.’ Unanime is famous as a premium wine produced by top winemakers who unanimously decided on the blending ratio. 7-Eleven released an art wine featuring the masterpiece ‘Henri Matisse’ for home interior enthusiasts. This product targets the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) who use wine bottles as interior decor items.

As convenience store wines gain great popularity, the product range is also diversifying. Prices range widely from around 5,000 won to several million won. Among the wines sold by the four major convenience stores, the lowest-priced wines are 7-Eleven’s Soliera (750ml) and Monteprio (750ml), both priced at 5,000 won. The most expensive wine is a six-item gift set offered by GS25 for Chuseok, priced at 10 million won. This set includes Ch?teau Lafite Rothschild 2003 (3.09 million won), Ch?teau Margaux 1996 (2.49 million won), and Sasseto 2015 (2.1 million won), a prestigious Italian wine, all regarded as some of France’s finest wines.

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