The convenience store industry is moving beyond uniform store layouts to engage in a "space competition" tailored to local business districts and customer characteristics. The strategy aims not only to provide spaces for purchasing goods but also to incorporate content such as popular restaurants, desserts, beauty products, and merchandise to extend customer dwell time and reinforce brand image.
According to the retail industry on the 12th, GS25, CU, Seven-Eleven, and E-Mart24 are strengthening their capabilities in store space design and specialty store planning. As large-format stores of 25 pyeong (approximately 83 square meters) or more and specialty stores have increased, there is growing necessity to differentiate products, services, and spaces for each store. Accordingly, each company is enhancing collaboration across relevant departments while also recruiting external design talent.
GS25 is developing new store models tailored to local business districts and customer characteristics, centered on its New Format Operation Team and Brand Design Team. The approach involves identifying new products, services, and experiential elements, concretizing them into store models, and implementing them in actual store spaces and interior designs.
CU's Facility Planning Team is solely responsible for new store platforms and space design. Internal design experts are tasked with refining specialty store concepts and implementing them in physical spaces. Through this new platform planning, "CU Refuel," which repurposes former gas stations, was also launched.
Seven-Eleven has strengthened its spatial competitiveness by recruiting external design talent. It hired an individual with a resume of multiple Gyeong Ryeok-gwa (수상) positions as the head of the Design Planning Team to lead store space innovation. In practice, designs emphasizing Seven-Eleven's identity and spaces considering customer dwell time are being applied, primarily at New Wave stores. Factors such as shopping routes, product spacing, chair heights, and table heights in dining areas have been analyzed and reflected in space design.
E-Mart24 has established a new "Store Format Planning" unit within its Facility Support Team to handle specialty store planning and design, recruiting relevant personnel from outside. This is to create spaces aligned with store locations, local business districts, and product concepts. The team oversees all aspects of store space, from interior design and fixture development to customer route planning, product display, and layout strategy. In practice, it has been responsible for the space design and aesthetics of E-Mart24's flagship store "Trend Lab Seongsu Store," as well as K-food specialty stores like "K-Food Lab Myeong-dong Store" and "Dessert Trap Seoul Forest Store."
Industry observers view the integration of multiple content types such as popular restaurants, desserts, beauty products, and merchandise into convenience stores as a new competitive edge. The question of how to arrange these contents within stores and convert them into customer dwell time is seen as key. Thus, the differentiation strategy for convenience stores is expanding from product competition to content competition, and further to space competition that houses this content.
An industry official stated, "Moving away from uniform standardization, filling each store with unique space designs and content tailored to local business districts and customer demographics is a new growth driver for convenience stores. Stores must provide customers with an experience of spaces they want to stay in through their unique personalities and designs."
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