Convenience stores add fashion items to shelves to attract young consumers

Companies woo patrons with nonfood items

By Ko Dong-hwan

Korea's convenience store chains have begun adding fashion items to their shelves to make the most of their vast network of 55,500 outlets across the nation.

Convenience franchise companies are hoping this new strategy will attract more visitors and create loyal consumers of their brands. Nonfood items have often remained out of the limelight, as food products are often the main stars of marketing strategies and consumer events. However, convenience store companies are now capitalizing on the usually overlooked nonfood products, seeing an opportunity to distinguish themselves from their rivals.

GS Retail, which operates GS25 with 18,000 stores, has formed a new partnership with Musinsa, the country’s most popular fashion retail platform, to launch fashion items in selected convenience stores. GS Retail dubbed the partnership “an alliance between No. 1 retail brands.”

GS Retail said it signed the partnership on Tuesday and will introduce Musinsa Standard Express, a lineup Musinsa launched exclusively for GS25, next month. The lineup has 12 categories, including a jacket, pants, a T-shirt, a belt, underwear and socks. For now, the items will have a dedicated section inside 3,000 GS25 stores. GS Retail said it will further diversify the lineup and launch the products at more stores later.

Huh Chi-hong, chief of GS Retail’s MD team, said the partnership will generate a new growth engine by introducing a new customer experience. “We will keep making new partnerships with leading companies and brands in diverse fields and create win-win synergies to boost our market competitiveness,” he added.

In September, 7-Eleven, another major convenience store franchise brand here, introduced a new store at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza area in central Seoul, known for its array of fashion retailers. Korea Seven, the Lotte Group arm that operates the franchise, signed partnerships with street fashion brand Mwoong and socks design brand Sockstop to sell their products at the new store.

Mwoong, a street fashion brand that has opened pop-up stores in Seoul’s trendy areas of Hongdae and Seongsu, released ready-to-wear items, including long sleeves and hoodies, at the new 7-Eleven store. Sockstop also launched 20 different types of socks for the store.

GS Retail and Korea Seven both launched fashion items to attract and cater to more young consumers in their teens and 30s. A GS Retail official said those age groups are core consumers of both GS25 and Musinsa, and the partnership aims to provide them with a more convenient shopping experience.

“Musinsa Standard, our specialty brand that boasts trendy styles and fits, is particularly popular among those in the young age groups,” a Musinsa official said. “If the brand meets the consumers of GS25, it will make a good synergy.”

Korea Seven said young consumers’ needs have increasingly become more specific and diverse, and such demands also extend to nonfood categories.

“Our new store targets the MZ generation (a term for millennials and Gen Zers, those born from 1981 to 2012) who are more interested in fashion and beauty than any other age group,” a company official said.

Introducing fashion items at nonfashion variety stores has also proven successful as seen in the case of Daiso, a budget retail chain selling everyday household items at affordable prices. The sales of fleece hoodies and padded vests at Daiso's ready-to-wear section from October to January jumped 86 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The popularity of fashion items at Daiso stores also drove the company's growth. In 2023, its sales reached 3.46 trillion won ($2.39 billion), up 17.5 percent year-on-year, and operating profit improved 9.4 percent to 261 billion won during the same period.