Convenience stores target late-night snackers with new 24-hour delivery

Convenience stores CU and GS25 will begin offering 24-hour delivery service via the food delivery app Coupang Eats starting Tuesday, the chains announced on Monday.

CU's new delivery service will be open between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., hours previously unavailable. The expanded service will be offered at around 2,000 stores across Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Busan, Gwangju and Daejeon.

Customers can order most products such as dessert, beverages, fried chicken and bento boxes. They cannot, however, buy items that require age verification, such as alcohol or tobacco.

GS25 is set to first launch its 24-hour delivery at roughly 1,000 stores in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Korea’s six major metropolitan cities, with plans to gradually expand the service area.

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven Korea also plans to begin 24-hour delivery via Coupang Eats next month, while another convenience store chain, Emart24, is reviewing expanding its delivery hours.

Convenience store operators expect the move to boost sales. Late-night delivery sales between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. rose 42.7 percent last month, across around 2,500 stores, compared with November, when the service was first introduced, according to GS25.

The share of late-night orders within GS25’s total delivery sales also increased from 17.4 percent to 21.7 percent over the same period.

The most frequently purchased items during late-night hours were snacks, ice cream, instant noodles, carbonated drinks and pastries. 

CU also said growth in late-night delivery sales has consistently outpaced growth in its overall delivery business.

The convenience store industry expects overnight and early-morning delivery demand to surge further during the FIFA World Cup, scheduled from June 11 to July 19, being livestreamed from Canada, Mexico and the United States. 

“Convenience stores' quick commerce is different from larger grocery stores because convenience store orders are often in small quantities,” said Lee Jong-woo, a professor at the Department of Global Distribution and Marketing at Namseoul University. “The [new delivery] service is also likely to expand further because consumers can use it regardless of the time of day or weather conditions.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY LIM SUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]