GS Retail's Commerce Strategy Succeeds with Coupang Acquisition

A customer is selecting a Cucat Strawberry Ssok Chapssal Rice Cake Bar at GS25.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] GS Retail announced on the 17th that its O4O (Online for Offline) strategy, which links offline retailers with online content commerce, is achieving great results.

Sales of Cookat products, which GS Retail has been actively expanding since May this year, have significantly increased not only at the convenience store GS25 but also in the supermarket GS The Fresh channel. Cookat is a startup in which GS Retail acquired a 47.1% stake in January this year and is Asia's largest food media company with 33 million global social network service (SNS) followers.

Cookat products handled by GS25 started with 24 best-selling Cookat items in June, the early launch phase, expanded to 33 items in August, and the average daily sales performance increased by 42.7% in August compared to June.

Among Cookat's best products, the direct-grilled boneless chicken feet were additionally launched as Gonghwachun Boneless Chicken Feet by combining with GS Retail's popular private brand (PB) Gonghwachun Ramen, and the strawberry glutinous rice cake was launched in July as the Strawberry Glutinous Rice Cake Ice Bar ice cream. The four products jointly planned by GS Retail and Cookat, including Gonghwachun Boneless Chicken Feet and Strawberry Glutinous Rice Cake Ice Bar, all ranked within the top 5 in sales among Cookat products in August.

GS The Fresh, which introduced Cookat products a month earlier than GS25 in May, saw a 64.0% increase in average daily sales of Cookat products in August compared to May, showing a higher sales growth rate than convenience stores.

Total sales of Cookat products sold at GS The Fresh rank third in the frozen convenience food category, following CJ CheilJedang and Pulmuone. Among the 41 Cookat products, seven of the top 10 best-selling items are meal and side dish types, such as Cookat Flat Makchang, Cookat Seasoned Dakgalbi, and Cookat Ttukbaegi Gamjatang.

GS Retail analyzed that Cookat products, which were expected to be mainly consumed by the 10-20 age group, have strengths in Korean meals and side dishes and have influenced SNS-savvy housewives in their 40s and 50s as well.

GS Retail plans to expand Cookat products by about 20 more items within the year and gradually increase the number of stores handling the products to successfully implement the O4O strategy.

Yoo Kanghyun, head of GS Retail's Strategic Investment Operations, said, “Since acquiring shares in Cookat, GS Retail has been regularly discussing new product development and joint marketing to enhance synergy between the two companies. We will continue to build a strong online-offline food culture platform that satisfies all age groups.”

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