Trendy liquor lures young customers to marts

Industry

Published: 15 Feb. 2023, 17:47 Updated: 15 Feb. 2023, 19:39

Trendy liquor lures young customers to marts

Buyers line up at Emart's Yongsan branch in central Seoul on Jan. 6 to buy whisky after Emart announced it would be discounting seven popular whisky brands. A sign reads that sales of whisky are limited to two bottles per customer. [YONHAP]

Discount store shoppers are getting younger as stores offer customized services and trendier merch, like limited-edition liquor.

Homeplus said Wednesday the number people aged 20 to 39 registering to their website increased on year by 53 percent from Feb. 17 last year through Jan. 31.

Currently, 37 percent of its total online members are in their 20s or 30s, it added.

“In order to capture the young generation of 'lazy economy' consumers, who seek time-saving and effort-saving products and services, we aimed to offer convenient and easy shopping and, in turn, saw the proportion and repurchase rate of customers in their 20s and 30s increase,” said Cho Hye-young, director of online marketing at Homeplus.

The retailer explained it was able to attract young customers through its customized delivery services, which allows customers to choose a time slot when the products will be delivered. Homeplus Express’s “One-hour Delivery” service can be applied to purchases ordered before 10 p.m. to be delivered within an hour. Its “Mart Direct Delivery” service, on the other hand, allows purchases ordered before 2 p.m. to be delivered within the desired time slot on the same day or up to three to four days later.

Homeplus said its unique online payment system Homeplay, which was newly introduced in August last year, also helped attract young customers. Homeplus said that as of Jan. 31, 33 percent of the customers who paid through Homeplay were in their 20s and 30s.

Some young shoppers are turning up to physical stores to browse the liquor shelves, specifically for wine and whisky, the latter of which had long been regarded as a drink for old men.

“I went to liquor bars several times before the pandemic, but after the 10 p.m. Covid curfew was put in place, I started drinking whisky at home by purchasing bottles at retail stores,” said 27-year-old designer Shin Hee-yeon.

“[I got into whisky because] unlike soju and beer, which are often shared at social gatherings, I can drink whisky alone peacefully and its taste doesn’t change much over time,” Shin said.

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an increase of home drinking, like Shin, and shifted young people’s drinking habits more toward whisky and other liquors that were previously favored by older consumers.

Lisa of Blackpink as the new ambassador of Scotch whisky Chivas. Whisky brands are marketing to the younger generations by appointing younger faces for its ambassadors. [CHIVAS]

Korea Customs Service data shows whisky imports jumped 72.6 percent on year to 27,038 tons in 2022. The value of imported whisky stood at $247.11 million last year, which is the largest since 2008.

Convenience store CU's year-on-year sales growth in the liquor category stood at 10.7 percent in 2019, 99 percent in 2021, and 49.5 percent in 2022. The proportion of customers in their 20s and 30s was particularly high, with those in their 30s taking the largest piece of the pie with 38 percent of the total consumers, followed by 25.3 percent from buyers in their 20s in 2022.

“With the expansion of home drinking, those in their 20s and 30s began to look for more unique alcoholic beverages, and among them, the demand for whisky shot up rapidly,” said Kim Woong, a liquor manager at Lotte Mart.

The increasing popularity of these liquor products is tangible inside retail stores.

Lotte Mart's Bottlebunker wine store [LOTTE MART]

Many retail and convenience stores started putting their whiskies in a dedicated spot in the liquor section. Lotte Mart recently launched a wine store called Bottlebunker, to attract young audiences with its wide selection of wines. It is “going viral within the wine- and whisky-loving community as they can snatch up limited edition products,” Lotte Mart said.

“Open runs,” or the phenomenon of people lining up in front of stores before they open, are no longer limited to Chanel bags and now include limited edition wines and whiskies.

On Feb. 10, Emart sold Kim Chang Soo Whisky at four of its branches, each with only six bottles. According to Emart’s Seongsu branch, people started lining up in front of the store from 11 a.m. the previous day, with the staff having to break up the waiting line two hours later. Most of the queuers were young people.

A month ago, Emart declared it would sell some 10,000 bottles from seven different whisky brands, including The Balvenie, Macallan, Hibiki and Yamazaki, from Jan. 6 to 7. After news broke, hundreds of buyers lined up in front of Emart stores before opening to get their hands on the popular whisky bottles.

“Large discount stores are targeting people in their 20s and 30s to expand their customer base that was mostly comprised of middle-aged shoppers, and to secure future potential customers,” an insider from the retail sector said. “Competition will continue to capture the younger generation who are sensitive to trends and who like to invest in their hobbies.”

BY CHOI SUN-EUL, YOO JI-YOEN, SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]