CU Introduces Mobile Dining Vouchers for Chicken, Pizza, Porridge, and More

CU announced on the 25th that, as dining-out demand continues to increase day by day after the COVID-19 endemic, it will be the first in the industry to sell mobile dining-out vouchers.

Utilizing its nationwide network of up to 17,400 stores, CU will sell various types of dining-out vouchers in prepaid (prepaid gift certificate) format starting from the 25th of this month, covering fields such as porridge, chicken, coffee, pizza, bakery, ice cream, and fast food.

The dining-out vouchers include a total of 15 brands: Bonjuk, Bonjuk & Bibimbap, Bondo Lunchbox, BBQ, BHC, Goobne Chicken, Hollys, Paris Baguette, Dunkin', Baskin Robbins, H?agen-Dazs, Domino's Pizza, Papa John's, KFC, and Mos Burger. Additionally, the cosmetics brand Missha is also available for purchase.

These mobile dining-out vouchers can be purchased in advance and as gifts, offering high convenience. Also, since they are not typical paper gift certificates, they are easy to store and transfer, with no risk of loss.

To purchase, customers can scan the prepaid QR code available at the store or select the desired voucher on the ‘QR Prepaid’ online mall, enter their mobile phone number, and pay using the generated barcode. The mobile PIN received via KakaoTalk upon purchase can be used immediately.

CU is running a promotion for all customers who purchase these dining-out vouchers, giving away CU mobile gift certificates worth 1,000 KRW for about three months until October this year, and offering 2,000 KRW CU mobile gift certificates 100% for purchases exceeding 15,000 KRW.

As mobile gift certificates spread as a major payment method like cash or credit cards and demand increases every year, CU has been steadily focusing on activating prepaid sales. Recently, it also became the first in the industry to sell popular figure lucky box prepaid vouchers targeting the MZ generation.

Currently, CU sells a total of about 200 types of prepaid vouchers. The category with the highest sales is cultural gift certificates, accounting for 59.0% of total sales. Next is game charging at 39.0%, with these two categories holding an overwhelming market share.

Looking at the sales share by location for prepaid vouchers this year, the academy districts where students are concentrated accounted for 55%, followed by residential areas at 27%, offices at 12%, and university areas at 6%. CU plans to expand the product range to more diverse fields in the future, starting with these dining-out vouchers, to broaden its customer base.

Yoo Seong-hwan, head of the BGF Retail Service Platform Team, said, “The domestic mobile gift certificate market size grew from 6 trillion KRW in 2021 to 7.2 trillion KRW in 2022, and as digital culture spreads, it is a market with very high growth potential. CU will continue to leverage the accessibility of the largest nationwide store network to expand partnerships with new brands and enhance purchase benefits.”

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