Affordable private brand products garner popularity at GS25 stores

By Park Sae-jin Posted : March 21, 2024, 16:39 Updated : March 21, 2024, 16:39
[Courtesy of GS Retail]

SEOUL, March 21 (AJU PRESS) -- Private brand products, designed to attract consumers who seek products with more affordable prices, are garnering popularity at "GS25" convenience stores, operated by GS Retail. The convenience store operator analyzed the popularity attributed to consumer demands for cheap and high-quality products. 

Private brand (PB) products are affordable items that were created by benchmarking popular or bestselling products. Companies normally provide PB products at more affordable prices than competitors by cutting production, marketing, and logistics costs.

PB products were first introduced to South Korean consumers in 1996 when Emart, the mega-store franchise operated by retail giant Shinsegae, released bottled milk products targeting housewives. Currently, PB products are available at franchise supermarkets, convenience stores, and mega-stores.

GS Retail said that its PB lineup called "Real Price" saw its sales recorded in January and February increase by 714 percent compared to August and September 2023, the first two months after the brand's launching.

"Convenience stores typically experience a huge peak season in August and September. The fact that sales have grown by more than 700 percent is seen as proof that customer demand for price-stable products is very high," GS Retail's PR manager Kim Tae-young told Aju Korea Daily on Wednesday.

Real Price products that benchmark popular bestseller snacks and food products were first introduced to GS Retail's supermarket franchise "GS The Fresh" in 2017. GS Retail said the company will gradually expand its Real Price PB product lineup to create synergy at supermarkets and convenience stores.

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