Holding Hands Boosts Sales... Convenience Stores Enter the Era of Unique Collaborations

Seven Eleven collaborates with Ottogi's 'Yeolramyeon'
CU launches instant meals with Nongshim's Jjapagetti and Baehongdong
GS25 partners with Nexon mobile games
'Bitcoin Dosirak' also launched in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange

The domestic convenience store industry is teaming up with food companies to continuously launch unique new products. Convenience store items incorporating familiar brands are providing consumers with fresh enjoyment and resulting in solid performance improvements.

According to the distribution industry on the 25th, convenience store Seven Eleven released 'Seven Select Yeolpa Dakbokkeummyeon' in collaboration with food company Ottogi. This product is the second collaboration between Seven Eleven and Ottogi, combining the popular chicken specialty menu 'Padak' and Ottogi's spicy ramen 'Yeolramyeon.' Previously, in September last year, Seven Eleven also launched 'Daepa Yeolramyeon,' which combined Yeolramyeon with its private brand (PB) product Daepa Ramyeon.

Seven Select Yeolpa Spicy Chicken Stir-fried Noodles.
[Photo by Seven Eleven]

Seven Eleven×Ottogi Daepa Yeolramyeon, No.1 Cup Ramen Sales Two Weeks After Launch

The collaboration products between Seven Eleven and Ottogi have been popular since their release. Daepa Yeolramyeon, launched in September last year, ranked first in Seven Eleven's cup ramen sales just two weeks after its release. Since its launch until last month, more than 2 million units have been sold. Encouraged by this success, Seven Eleven has set this year's PB ramen strategy as 'PB X NB (manufacturer) brand collaboration' and is planning to release PB ramen products in collaboration with various brands.

CU, a convenience store operated by BGF Retail, also launched six types of ready meals using Nongshim's 'Baehongdong' sauce the day before. These products utilize Baehongdong bibim sauce made by grinding and fermenting pear, red chili pepper, and dongchimi radish water kimchi, and are collaboration products with Nongshim's bibim noodle brand 'Baehongdong,' launched in 2021. The Baehongdong series has been popular enough to rank second in the bibim noodle market from its first year of release.

This is also the second collaboration between CU and Nongshim. Earlier in March, they launched six types of ready meals using Jjapagetti sauce. At that time, CU reinvented Jjapagetti, the representative brand of jajang ramen, into ready meal menus ahead of Black Day, and the cumulative sales exceeded 1 million units by mid-this month, just three months after launch, showing great popularity. Accordingly, CU plans to release 'Honey Kkwabaegi Makgeolli,' using Nongshim's representative snack product Kkwabaegi, next month.

GS25 Teams Up with Nexon, Blue Archive Bread 'Open Run'

Some convenience stores have also released collaboration products with popular mobile games. GS Retail, which operates convenience store GS25, launched products in collaboration with Nexon's popular mobile game 'Blue Archive' and held marketing events. Through a stamp event, prizes such as Blue Archive character goods were given away, and some GS25 stores operated as pop-up stores selling limited edition goods.

GS25's Blue Archive bread, which included stickers of game characters, surpassed 2 million units sold in about 50 days, and the stamp event ended immediately on the day it started. The pop-up store caused an 'open run' phenomenon, with lines forming a day before opening. Previously, GS25 also collaborated with Nexon's popular game MapleStory to release the 'MapleStory Bread' series, which recorded cumulative sales of 15 million units.

Customers are waiting to enter the Blue Archive popup store event held last month.
[Photo by GS Retail]

Emart24 attracted attention by launching unique lunch boxes in collaboration with a virtual asset exchange. Last month, Emart24 collaborated with Bithumb to release the 'Bitcoin Lunch Box.' This product included a coupon that allowed customers to receive up to 30,000 KRW worth of Bitcoin through Bithumb. The lunch box packaging also used a golden circular container reminiscent of Bitcoin. In addition, Emart24 released collaboration products such as ready meals using Orion's popular snack 'Ogamja' and products featuring the character 'Alyaci' from East Security's security service 'ALYac.' Emart24's Bitcoin Lunch Box sold out 30,000 units prepared within ten days of launch, ending sales about half a month earlier than planned.

Such collaboration attempts in the convenience store industry are expected to continue. By creating buzz through unique collaborations using familiar products, they lead to performance improvements. A GS25 official said, "Collaborations with popular games form a friendly brand image among younger generations and increase customer touchpoints, which is effective in boosting sales," adding, "We plan to continue building collaboration models with various games and content to continuously create synergy."