CU hopes to make wine purchasing more convenient

A customer holds a wine bottle to look for information on the soon-to-launch wine curation service on convenience store CU's mobile app Pocket CU. [BGF RETAIL]

Convenience Store franchise CU will curate wines for its customers through its mobile app Pocket CU, the first such service in the industry.

BGF Retail, the operator of CU, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local wine-reviewing app Winegraph on July 29 to start a wine curating service at BGF Retail’s headquarters located in Gangnam District, southern Seoul.

The exact release date of the new service has not been set yet, but it will be released within this month, the company said.

Through the MOU, BGF Retail and Winegraph will provide the wine reviews already on Winegraph on Pocket CU and curate wines according to the consumption patterns of a customer. It will also recommend wines that pair well with CU’s products. There are over 70,000 wine reviews on Winegraph. CU sells 150 kinds of wine.

The app will also provide the cost and additional promotional information for each product.

A wine-label searching system will also be set up by the end of this month. If a Pocket CU user takes a picture of a wine label sold at CU, the product’s information such as its type, country of manufacture and alcohol percentage will be provided.

“Wine labels carry a lot of information such as the grape type and its winery, but it can be somewhat difficult for beginners to grasp,” BGF Retail said in a press release. “But using the wine label search, the phone acts as a sommelier, giving beginners a chance to get their hands on information easily.”

Wine consumption rose rapidly this year due to people staying at home to drink, leading the company to establish a wine curation service, it explained.

“People having been buying more wine at convenience stores, so we hope to provide a more convenient purchasing experience for customers through our partnership with a specialized start-up,” said Song Ji-taek, senior managing director at BGF Retail.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]