Homeplus Takes Offline Gamble...Significantly Expands Fresh Food Selection

17 Locations Renovated by First Half of Next Year
Food to Non-Food Ratio Changed to 6:4
SSM Transforms into Fresh and Ready-to-Eat Specialty Stores

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] As the COVID-19 pandemic prolongs, the retail industry is once again focusing on strengthening offline competitiveness, and Homeplus has made a bold move by renovating stores and differentiating fresh food products.

◆ Expanding the sales proportion of food products to 60% = On the 28th, Homeplus announced that starting with the Incheon Ganseok store opening next month, it will renovate and unveil 17 stores by the first half of next year. These renewed stores will shift the ratio of food to non-food products from the existing 50:50 to 60:40, focusing on food, which is their offline strength. This reflects the continuous increase in the proportion of fresh food sales at Homeplus over the past three years. Up to September this year, the average monthly purchase frequency per customer for fruit and livestock products reached 1.6 times.

Based on data accumulated from offline stores, Homeplus will also improve store efficiency through optimized product composition and placement. This year, Homeplus analyzed customer consumption data and selected the top 10 fruits whose sales increased by an average of 20%. Based on this, they are planning differentiated products including seven major domestic fruits such as watermelon, strawberry, apple, peach, oriental melon, grape, and mandarin orange, as well as three major imported fruits including imported grapes, cherries, and kiwi. Additionally, Homeplus has expanded its designated farms from about 70 to 700, offering around 40 products across all online and offline channels. Homeplus designated farms are a system where buyers, technical managers, and partners manage everything from cultivation to harvest to provide customers with high-quality products.

Homeplus Gangseo Headquarters.

◆ Four out of five stores serve as online logistics hubs = Homeplus Express, a corporate supermarket (SSM), is transitioning into a fresh and ready-to-eat food specialty store. Since 2018, it has renovated and reopened 159 existing stores. The number of non-food products has been reduced, and fresh food, ready-to-eat meals, and processed foods are organized at about 90% of the level of large supermarkets. With the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic sustaining the home meal trend, the meal kit and salad zones have also been expanded. The 56 stores renovated this year have seen an average sales increase of 15% compared to before, receiving a positive response. Homeplus Express plans to operate an additional 23 fresh and ready-to-eat food specialty stores by the first half of next year.

They are also strengthening online capabilities through the ‘Mart Direct Delivery’ method. Currently, 376 stores nationwide?including 122 Homeplus stores and 254 Homeplus Express stores?function as online stores. This means that 80% of the total 470 stores are utilized as logistics hubs. Thanks to this, online sales have grown at an average annual rate of 20% over the past five years. A Homeplus official stated, "We plan to increase the number of online deliveries, currently about 100,000 per day, to over 130,000 by 2025."

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