CU Expands Alcohol Pickup Service in Partnership with Catch Table

Growth of Online Alcohol Purchase Market
Expansion and Diversification of New Customer Acquisition

CU announced on the 27th that it has partnered with Ward, a specialized integrated solution company for the food service industry, to expand the liquor reservation purchase service CU BAR to the fine dining reservation platform CatchTable.

CatchTable surpassed 3.5 million monthly active users (MAU) last May and holds a high market share with over 10,000 affiliated franchise stores. CU BAR is a service that allows customers to reserve and purchase desired liquor products from over 1,600 liquor items available on CU’s O4O application Pocket CU, and then pick up the liquor at the designated date and store.

With this partnership, CatchTable’s liquor pickup service, which was previously available only at some restaurants, will be expanded to CU stores nationwide. Customers can pick up their reserved products anytime 24/7 at convenience stores near their homes.

The two companies plan to increase the variety of products sold, including beer and wine, after stabilizing the service starting with popular whiskeys such as Balvenie, Glenfiddich, and Hendrick’s. The service will first be launched at about 1,000 CU stores located in high foot traffic areas such as Myeongdong in Seoul and Haeundae in Busan, then gradually expand to more stores. They also plan to broaden partnership areas in the future, including collaborations with major restaurants offering corkage-free services.

The reason CU is expanding the liquor pickup service is due to the growing online liquor purchase market that enhances customer shopping convenience. CU BAR’s sales growth rate compared to the previous year was 145.2% in 2022, 190.8% in 2023, and 178.1% from January to July this year, showing a steep growth of more than double every year. CU aims to diversify customer touchpoints for CU BAR through CatchTable, increase new customer inflow, generate linked sales, and ultimately boost sales at CU stores.

To celebrate the service launch, a promotional event has been prepared. From the 27th for two days, customers who purchase whiskey within the CatchTable app and select a CU store as the pickup location can buy 14 types of highly demanded whiskeys such as Balvenie and Glenfiddich at discounts of up to 32%.

Park Hee-jin, head of BGF Retail’s Online Commerce Team, said, “The liquor pickup service has become a new purchasing pattern for liquor products, gaining great popularity across all age groups including the mobile-savvy 2030 generation. Going forward, CU will continue to lead product and customer purchasing trends by leveraging the nation’s largest network.”

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