CU Wins 'Grand Prize' at AI Awards for Its Own App PocketCU

Average Daily New Subscribers Double

Customers are using the Pocket CU application (app) at CU. (Photo by BGF Retail)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] CU announced on the 13th that its proprietary application (app) PocketCU won the 'Grand Prize' at the 2022 iAwards. The iAwards is an awards ceremony that selects innovative internet services that have shone this year through an evaluation process conducted by over 4,000 internet experts organized by the Korea Internet Professionals Association (KIPFA) and evaluation committees for each category.

In April this year, CU invested more than 10 billion KRW to revamp its platform to build an online-offline one-stop shopping platform. By expanding the offline convenience store market to online, it is being utilized as the focal point of the O4O (Online for Offline) business that closely connects customers and stores. The main functions of PocketCU include ▲delivery orders ▲PyeonPICK (convenience store pickup) ▲reservation purchase ▲home delivery ▲inventory inquiry ▲CU Wallet, focusing on strengthening the linkage between offline stores and online commerce.

Since the revamp of PocketCU, the average daily number of new subscribers has more than doubled compared to the previous year, and the number of active members jumped from 2.5 million at the end of last year to 3.5 million. The daily number of users increased by 200% compared to the previous year, and membership points accumulation and actual commerce usage performance grew by 150%.

The most used feature on PocketCU this year was the inventory inquiry service, which recorded an average of 4 million uses per month and a total of 32 million uses over the past eight months. This service informs the real-time stock quantity of all products by store and is used as a channel to find popular products such as Yonsei Milk Cream Bread and Korea University Pastry.

A BGF Retail official said, “This year, through PocketCU, we expanded the CU universe online, bringing innovation to improve customer convenience and increase store sales. Next year, we will continue to lead the convenience store industry’s e-commerce trend by upgrading functions through continuous investment to provide membership-based customized convenience to customers.”

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