Major Sales Season for Retailers on Valentine's Day
Convenience Stores Unveil Character Goods and Merchandise
Lotte Department Store Features Dessert Promotions, AliExpress Holds Fresh Flower Discounts
The convenience store industry has launched aggressive marketing campaigns, including special products, to celebrate Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day, along with White Day (March 14) and Pepero Day (November 11), is considered one of the major commemorative days in the retail industry, alongside Chuseok and Lunar New Year holidays.
Four Convenience Store Chains Showcase Collaborative and Value Products Featuring 'Haribo, Capybara, Mimiminu'
A model is posing while holding the Valentine's Day special set introduced at GS25. Provided by GS25.
GS25 is hosting the 'GS25 Sweet Festival' for Valentine's Day, partnering with global jelly brand 'Haribo', popular animation 'Jujutsu Kaisen', and artist 'Matthew Rangel' to offer special sets. Additionally, throughout February, they are running buy-one-get-one (1+1), buy-two-get-two (2+2), and other promotional events on over 200 types of chocolates, gum, and candies.
The Haribo set includes items such as refrigerator magnets, foot mats, water cups, and stickers. The Jujutsu Kaisen set contains a ballpoint pen, passport wallet, keyring, and shoe accessories. The Matthew Rangel set is composed of fashion goods like aprons, tarpaulin mats, eco-bags, bags, and book covers. The 'Hamging' and 'Wicked' sets include doll keyrings, coasters, and mugs. Among these, 41 types of Haribo and Matthew Rangel Valentine's Day special sets are eligible for a 40% payback promotion when paid via Pay (Kakao or Naver) until the 13th.
GS25 expects high sales this Valentine's Day as it falls on a Friday. Analyzing chocolate sales indices on February 14 over the past five years (2020?2024), the Valentine's Day in 2020, which was on a Friday, recorded the highest index of 128 (average 100).
CU is conducting Valentine's Day marketing with 'goods' products featuring cute characters such as the animal 'Capybara' and 'Rilakkuma'. Despite high inflation, the sales proportion of higher-priced products tends to increase on commemorative days, so CU plans to attract customers by emphasizing characters and practical goods.
The representative products are eight planned items created in collaboration with 'Ppujiki' and 'Ppajiki', characters based on the capybara living in Everland. CU offers acrylic keyrings, fleece eco-bags, face bags, cushions, slippers, and carriers designed with these characters, bundled with chocolates and jelly. At CU Everland, CU's flagship second store, the interior and exterior will be decorated with Ppujiki and Ppajiki images, and a Valentine's Day special product pop-up zone will operate until March 14.
They will also release 18 collaborative products with 'Rilakkuma', which caused a sold-out frenzy last Pepero Day. Popular items include bags such as carriers, tote bags, and cooler bags, as well as accessories like smart talks, keyrings, and coin wallets.
Seven Eleven is offering over 130 practical Valentine's Day collaborative products so customers can choose according to their preferences. They partnered with 'Mimiminu', an educational and admissions content creator who has gained unique attention from the Alpha generation ahead of the new school semester. Mimiminu is a YouTube creator with over 1.7 million subscribers. They are launching 'Mimiminu Crunky 6-pack' containing a lucky charm with Mimiminu's face and 'Mimiminu Crunky 8-pack' which includes a message card personally written by Mimiminu.
They also prepared collaborative products with 'Lasso Bear', a character popular among people in their 20s and 30s. Lasso Bear is a strawberry-scented teddy bear featured in the movie 'Toy Story 3'. The Lasso Bear collaboration includes five products, centered around the 'Lasso Bear Face Cushion Set' featuring a large face cushion, along with 'Face Pouch Set', 'Keyring Set', and 'Mouse Pad', sold together with snacks. Additionally, they are releasing six collaborative products with 'Blooming Tail Studio', a brand known for phone decoration items. Blooming Tail Studio is a specialty accessory brand that leads consumption among women in their teens and twenties with its unique designs inspired by flowers and famous paintings.
Emart24 is focusing on value products for Valentine's Day marketing. First, Emart24 is running a 'More the Merrier Half-Price Coupon Pack' event on all single chocolate products until the 14th. To allow customers to express their feelings to multiple acquaintances without burden, they offer half-price coupons based on purchase amount tiers when buying single chocolate products with Hyundai Card.
The purchase amount tiers are set at 10,000?20,000 KRW, 20,000?30,000 KRW, and over 30,000 KRW, with coupons worth 5,000 KRW, 10,000 KRW, and 15,000 KRW given respectively. Customers can receive coupons by purchasing chocolate promotional products in one go and pressing the 'Apply' button on the mobile application (app).
They also offer value planning products. These include 119 items such as the 'Miyaocat Keyring Set' and 'Sticker Set' featuring the Balloon Friends' 'Miyaocat' character, the 'Ferrero Rocher T3 4-pack Gift Set Package', and the 'Sweet Box' composed of chocolates and jelly. More than half of the planned products are priced under 10,000 KRW to minimize customer burden.
Targeting Gift Demand... Retail Industry Holds Discounts on Cosmetics, Fresh Flowers, and More
Besides chocolate products, more retailers are holding discount events targeting gift demand. Lotte Department Store has been selling a variety of products since the 30th of last month, ranging from beauty, jewelry, and fashion accessories to wine, desserts, and lifestyle goods.
Notably, until the 9th, all Lotte Department Store branches are running a purchase promotion on beauty, jewelry, and fashion accessory product categories. During the event, a 'Beauty Gift Fair' featuring four cosmetics companies (Amorepacific, LG Household & Health Care, Est?e Lauder Companies, Shiseido) offers discounts of up to 20%.
From the 7th to the 16th, they will showcase various products including desserts, lighting, party tables, and decorations. The main and Jamsil branches will host a dessert pop-up featuring 13 brands including famous bakeries and patisserie dessert shops.
Musinsa Beauty, in collaboration with fashion and lifestyle magazine 'Cosmopolitan', is presenting Musinsa Beauty content featuring singer Kwon Eunbi and actor Song Geonhee, proposing stylish items suitable for Valentine's Day gifting.
Furthermore, product discount events are underway. This festival involves 382 indie brands such as Rainbow Mansion, Wellage, Joomiso, and Purcell. Major discount events include lucky boxes, 990 KRW deals, iconic special prices, and relay brand specials, offering over 12,000 products with discounts up to 80%.
AliExpress, recognizing gift demand for Valentine's Day and other occasions, is selling 'fresh flowers and bouquets' through its Korean product specialty store, K-Venue. All fresh flower products are shipped directly from domestic farms, minimizing distribution channels so that Korean consumers can purchase fresh flowers at more reasonable prices even in this high-inflation era.
In the special 'MD’s Pick' event running until the 7th, they offer affordable subscription delivery products composed of seasonal flowers priced under 10,000 KRW. From February 8 to 14, they will hold a time deal promotion with up to 50% discounts on fresh flowers and bouquets targeting Valentine's Day and graduation season. A limited quantity event selling 20 stems of freesias at a special time deal price of 6,900 KRW will also be held.
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