"Year-End Party Hotspot"... Christmas Wine, I Buy It 'Here'

Seven Eleven, Champagne Sales Up 180% Year-on-Year Over One Month
High-End Champagne Attracts Customers Effectively

As demand for ‘home parties’ to wrap up the year at home continues this year, 7-Eleven is emerging as a strong player in the year-end wine market.

According to the convenience store industry on the 12th, from the 1st of last month to the 11th of this month, 7-Eleven’s champagne sales growth rate increased by 180% compared to the same period last year. Thanks to champagne, overall wine sales during the same period also grew by 50%, significantly outperforming other major convenience stores’ wine sales.

This appears to be the result of 7-Eleven’s strategy to focus early on the domestic consumers’ demand for champagne and pursue a premiumization strategy. Champagne is a sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France, with limited production and low import volume, making its average price higher than that of regular wines. 7-Eleven has been working on diversifying its champagne products for the past two years and focused this year on securing high-end champagne selections.

A 7-Eleven representative said, "We noticed that champagne demand concentrates at the year-end. Two years ago, champagne prices were around 70,000 to 80,000 KRW, and it was perceived as a high-priced product, but recently, more consumers are looking for hard-to-find wines, so we believed a premium pricing strategy could work."

As the year-end approaches, other convenience stores are also trying to attract consumers by offering discount benefits or launching wines in collaboration with characters.

Emart24 has placed affordable yet cost-effective products at the forefront. They sell two types of ‘La Crasade’ (Cabernet Shiraz and Chardonnay) and ‘Roche Mazet Cabernet Sauvignon’ for less than 10,000 KRW each, which sell out as soon as they arrive. GS25 is running a mini golf bag promotion featuring the Chilean wine ‘1865,’ famous as a golf wine, in collaboration with Kakao characters ‘Ryan,’ ‘Chunsik,’ and ‘Tube,’ and also sells the ‘Mosel Christmas Wine,’ which once caused a sold-out frenzy. CU held a wine liquor market from October to early November, resulting in a slight decrease in wine sales growth compared to other convenience stores, but it is selling its own wine brand ‘Eum’ series’ ‘Eum Pinotage’ and offering up to 20% discounts on major wines.

The liquor industry expects that, as wine sales have rapidly increased over the past 2-3 years with year-end wine promotions at convenience stores, these stores will further expand their position as a wine purchasing channel. A liquor industry official said, "More wine shelves are being allocated, and from the store owners’ perspective, wine has a high profit margin, so if inventory management is done well, the profit potential is significant," adding, "They also offer services where customers can pre-order via an application (app) and pick up their orders, so the influence of convenience stores is expected to grow even more."

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