GS25 Opens 'Wine25Plus O4O Store' Breaking Boundaries Between Online and Offline

GS25 Launches Liquor Smart Order System 'Wine25Plus'
Flagship Store No.1 Opens for Product Experience and Purchase
Space to Explore Over 300 Premium Products at Yeoksam Hongin Store in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu
Plans to Expand Liquor Specialty Stores to 2,000 Locations by Year-End

At the GS25 Wine25 Plus flagship store No. 1, Yeoksam Hongin branch, a customer is browsing the catalog and wine.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] GS Retail's convenience store GS25 announced on the 25th that it has opened the first 'Wine25Plus Flagship Store' at GS25 Yeoksam Hongin Branch in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

The company explained that the opening of this flagship store was promoted due to the great response from customers to GS25's liquor smart order system 'Wine25Plus,' launched in July last year. In a situation where non-face-to-face and online shopping have become daily routines, the popularity of the smart order system has led to the operation of an offline store in reverse.

At the first GS25 Wine25Plus flagship store, about 300 excellent products based on Wine25Plus sales data are operated. By category, there are 130 types of wine and 130 types of whiskey and hard liquor. This is about five times more varieties than regular stores. Customers can conveniently shop by browsing the product catalog on dedicated smartphones and tablets provided at the flagship store.

GS25 plans to create mutual inflow synergy by linking online and offline customers and apply customers' vivid feedback to the smart order service. Through this, it is expected to realize O4O (Online for Offline) and omni-channel by combining various data and curation accumulated online with offline, beyond O2O (Online to Offline) that connects online and offline.

Wine25Plus has matched the 'home drinking' and 'homeconomy' trends caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, and since the service launch, various numerical indicators such as sales and purchase counts have grown significantly every month. From the beginning of this year to February 23, sales and order counts for 54 days increased by more than 700% compared to the same period after the service started (August 1 to September 23, 2020).

The composition ratio of order counts by gender was 62% male and 38% female, with males ordering more. The most sold liquor types were ranked 1st wine, 2nd hard liquor, 3rd whiskey, 4th cocktail, and 5th beer. Orders surged between 12 PM and 1 PM and between 8 PM and 10 PM, and pickups in residential and office districts accounted for more than 80% of total orders.

GS25 plans to expand liquor-specialized stores to 2,000 locations by the end of this year.

Ahn Jae-sung, GS Retail's liquor MD (Merchandiser), said, "Entering the eighth month since its launch, GS25's liquor smart order system Wine25Plus has become a liquor platform that leverages the strengths of both online and offline, fueled by the expansion of premium liquor demand and popularity." He added, "In the future, GS25 plans to strengthen differentiated competitiveness through its 15,000 offline stores nationwide."