The Season of Hot Americano... Convenience Store Ground Coffee Battle

Warm Coffee Sales Double
Own Brand Launch and Coffee Bean Differentiation
Intense Marketing with Discounts and Gold Bars

On the 24th, a model is introducing the coffee bean brand 'Seven Cafe' at the convenience store Seven Eleven.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] As the weather cools down and more people seek warm coffee, the competition for convenience store brewed coffee is heating up this fall. Each convenience store is launching its own coffee brand and targeting the market by emphasizing differentiated coffee beans.

According to the convenience store industry on the 24th, from the 1st to the 22nd of this month, sales of warm coffee at Emart24 increased by more than double (101%) compared to the same period last month. At GS25, warm coffee sales rose 89.4% compared to the previous month, 79.6% at 7-Eleven, and 37.8% at CU. The reason convenience store coffee is popular is that customers can enjoy coffee shop-level brewed coffee at more than half the price. The coffee menu offered at convenience stores is also becoming more diverse, including Americano, Caffe Latte, and Caffe Mocha.

Recently, each convenience store has been promoting unique coffee beans to pursue premiumization. This is a strategy to break away from the image of convenience store coffee as "cheap coffee." CU’s "Get Coffee" uses eco-friendly beans certified by the Rainforest Alliance, which are grown by workers guaranteed a stable livelihood on farms practicing sustainable agriculture. GS25’s "Cafe25" sells coffee blended from representative beans from five countries, including Colombia and Brazil, known as world-class coffee origins, and uses top-tier coffee machines made by Swiss Jura.

7-Eleven’s "Seven Cafe," an automatic drip coffee, uses paper filters to brew each cup individually rather than the espresso method extracted with high-pressure steam. The beans are 100% Arabica blended by a professional coffee company. Emart24’s "Ifresso" uses 100% single-origin Brazil Cerrado NY2 beans. At over 600 Emart24 barista coffee stores nationwide, customers can choose their preferred beans from Kenya AA and Colombia Huila Supremo.

Marketing competition to dominate the convenience store coffee market is also heating up. At CU, customers receive a 200 won discount on Get Coffee when using a personal tumbler instead of a disposable cup. 7-Eleven is running an event where customers who collect a total of 11 stamps after purchasing Seven Cafe can enter a draw to win a gold bar. Emart24 is holding a payback event until the end of the year, offering brewed coffee for 100 won on the 24th of every month.