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In 2024, the market size of convenience stores based on retail sales value in South Korea amounted to approximately trillion South Korea won. Convenience stores have become one of the leading offline retail channels in the last year.

Leading convenience store brands 

While the value of the South Korean convenience store market is growing, the number of convenience stores is also following an upwards trend. As of 2023, the convenience store brand with the most stores in South Korea was BGF Retail’s CU. Previously, it was its competitor GS Retail’s GS25. Despite having a slightly lower number of stores, GS25 was the leading convenience store franchise by sales revenue, as well as the leader among convenience store brands in terms of operating profit.

Consumer behavior in convenience stores

 As the name suggests, the majority of consumers prefer certain convenience store brands because of the convenience for them and the shopping experience. In 2020, the convenience store brand that had the highest visit share was GS25.
Most likely because convenience store customers usually shop for convenience foods, beverages, tobacco, or small daily necessities, the average spending per purchase in a convenience store, although increasing over the last year, reached over  South Korean won.