Digital Art Missing Even Convenience Stores... CU, Industry's First to Create NFT

CU, NFT Issuance.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Convenience stores, emerging as irreplaceable consumption hubs in the retail sector, are creating non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

CU announced on the 24th that it will introduce NFTs, digital assets created by collaborating with a famous character artist for the first time in the industry.

NFTs apply blockchain technology that assigns a unique identification value to digital files, making them tamper-proof. Due to their uniqueness and scarcity, NFTs are being commercialized in various fields such as music, videos, and artworks.

RayRay, an NFT specialist artist partnering with CU, is a renowned artist who sold out all works on OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace. RayRay presents digital art under the concept of “heroes with minor abilities,” visualizing the artist’s imagination into characters.

CU’s first NFTs feature heroes with special abilities: “Candy Lover,” who helps spread love by delivering candy; “One Plus One,” who duplicates items whenever a purchase is made; and “Caramel Camel,” who improves people’s moods by delivering caramel. There are three types in total.

A total of 314 hero NFTs will be issued. CU plans to hold an event throughout March on its membership app PocketCU, where users can obtain these NFTs.

After purchasing products at CU and accumulating points, users can select their desired artwork using raffle tickets generated in PocketCU. Participation is allowed once per day, and the more entries accumulated, the higher the chances of winning.

Winning NFTs will be distributed in mid-April and can be viewed in the NFT tab within Klip, a digital asset wallet accessible via KakaoTalk.

Reflecting the high social interest in blockchain, CU is actively adopting payment methods utilizing related technologies and offering various promotions linked to digital assets.

Currently, blockchain-based payment methods available at CU include ChaiPay and PayCoin, with usage transactions increasing by 121.3% compared to the previous year.

Last year’s industry-first MilkCoin giveaway event was so popular that its duration was extended, and recently, a second giveaway event was held. Over 65% of participants were from the 2030 generation, showing strong enthusiasm among the MZ generation.

Yeon Jeongwook, Marketing Team Leader at BGF Retail, said, “As the NFT market activates, we created NFTs and planned giveaway events for the first time in the industry to provide differentiated customer experiences. CU will continue to lead trends by offering digital asset-based promotions to provide more benefits to customers.”

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