GS25 expands late-night delivery service as sales soar

A customer places a late-night GS25 order through an app at home. [GS RETAIL]

Convenience store chain GS25 expanded its late-night delivery service to 2,000 branches across the country, the company announced Monday.

With the expansion of the service, customers can place late-night orders for food and other products from more than half the GS25 stores in Korea.

Around 2,000 stores will extend their delivery service, originally available from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., by between two to 12 hours. Orders will be made available through the Yogiyo delivery app.

The convenience store chain decided to extend delivery hours after it saw demand for such services surge as more people try to limit contact due to a recent spike in coronavirus cases.

The so-called “untact” trend was evident in terms of sales. GS Retail said sales generated from late night delivery, or orders placed between midnight and 5 a.m., accounted for 30.4 percent of delivery sales since the start of the pandemic.

According to sales figures for the past two months, sales at stores that offer late-night delivery services were 317.5 percent higher than stores without such services, the company said.

“We are seeing a growing number of consumers using our delivery service following the untact trend. The demand for such services is especially high late at night, which is the reason why we decided to expand our late-night delivery service to cover the entire country,” said Chu Seong-pil, a marketer at GS25.

GS25 will offer a 4,000 won ($3.40) discount for customers that place orders worth more than 20,000 won between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. The event will run from Aug. 24 through Aug. 31.

The convenience store chain has also been increasing the number of products available for delivery.

GS25 said it recently increased the number of items available for delivery by 43 percent, or 200 items, since it first introduced the service. Currently 670 products — including ice cream and coffee — can be delivered to customer’s doors.

BY KANG JAE-EUN [kang.jaeeun@joongang.co.kr]