Sales from North American customers up 130.9%; share hits record 30%

North Americans favor alcohol and energy drinks; Chinese-speaking customers prefer bread and dairy

Foreign customers shop at a GS25 convenience store. [GS25]
Foreign customers shop at a GS25 convenience store. [GS25]

GS25, the convenience store chain operated by GS Retail, said Thursday that sales from North American customers rose 130.9 percent in the January–August period compared with the same period last year, the highest growth rate among all regional customer groups.

North American customers also accounted for about 30 percent of total foreign sales — a record high. Chinese-speaking customers remained in first place at roughly 40 percent, but the gap between the two groups narrowed to about 10 percentage points.

The two groups showed distinct product preferences. North American customers gravitated toward alcoholic beverages — canned beer, wine and spirits — as well as functional drinks such as sports and energy drinks, and carbonated beverages. Canned beer sales from North American customers were the highest of any foreign customer group.

Chinese-speaking customers, by contrast, preferred dairy products and ready-to-eat foods, including milk, fermented milk drinks, noodles and bread and desserts. Greek yogurt (blueberry flavor) overtook banana milk as the top-selling item in that group, while the Dubai Chewy Cookie ranked third. Tobacco was a top-selling category for both groups.

At the regional level, sales from North American customers in Gangwon Province surged 337.8 percent, pushing their share above that of Chinese-speaking customers. Spending by North Americans was especially pronounced along the East Sea coast — in Goseong-gun, Sokcho, Yangyang-gun, Gangneung and Donghae — areas dense with beach resorts.

GS25 produced the analysis using a proprietary foreign-customer analytics tool developed by GS Retail's BizInsight team. The tool breaks down foreign customers' spending patterns by region, store, product and nationality. It is also linked to GS Group's in-house AI transformation platform, Miso, to provide AI-powered analysis.

GS25 said it is using the tool to sharpen its store operations, merchandise planning and marketing strategies for foreign customers. The company plans to broaden its foreign-customer strategy beyond its traditional focus on Chinese-speaking visitors to include North Americans and other groups, and to tailor its approach to areas where foreign spending is newly on the rise. Starting this year, GS25 has added English to in-store promotional materials at about 1,000 locations that see high foreign foot traffic, and is providing information such as popular recipes and recommended serving suggestions for individual products.

"We will closely analyze foreign customers' spending data to strengthen services tailored to each store and product, and work to establish GS25 as the K-convenience store that represents Korea to foreign visitors," said Jung Gu-min, head of GS Retail's BizInsight team.


spa@heraldcorp.com