Retail in Asia

In Shops

Convenience stores in Korea evolve

South Korean convenience stores have evolved from simple 24-hour corner shops into all-in-one stopovers for foods, goods and services tailored to modern needs.


Despite sluggish consumption, convenience stores have constituted the country’s fastest-growing retail segment, outpacing offline retailers by a large margin with a 29.6 percent on-year hike in sales in 2015, according to Statistics Korea.

KDB Daewoo Securities analyst Lee Jun-ki predicts “a continued growth of Korea’s convenience stores” amid demographic shifts toward single-person households — their main customer base.