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GS Retail’s “Half-Price Delivery” service, operated by GS25, is a parcel delivery service between convenience store locations. In an era of high inflation, it aligned well with consumers’ desire to save money, leading to over 10 million annual transactions just three years after its launch. The rapid growth is attributed not only to its exceptional pricing—half the cost of regular convenience store deliveries—but also to the rise in contactless transactions due to COVID-19 and the increasing popularity of secondhand trading. Half-Price Delivery originated from an employee’s idea while GS Retail was planning new business ventures utilizing its convenience store logistics infrastructure. However, the journey to launch was not smooth. To address the reluctance of related departments to take on new tasks and to convince franchise owners and delivery drivers skeptical about profitability, the Half-Price Delivery team applied one of its core strategies: “Think Big.” This strategy also influenced the decision to rename the project from “Slow Delivery” to “Half-Price Delivery” before its official launch. As the number of Half-Price Delivery users increased, GS25 added 10 dedicated trucks in addition to its existing fleet used for fresh food delivery to shorten delivery times. As a result, the delivery period, which previously took up to four days after receiving the parcel, was reduced to just one day (for deliveries within the same region). Building on the success of Half-Price Delivery, GS Retail is focusing on developing differentiated services that attract customers to its offline stores.

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It has been over 30 years since convenience stores were first introduced in Korea in 1991 and became deeply embedded in daily life. Last year, the number of convenience store franchises nationwide exceeded 50,000 for the first time.1 1"2022 Franchise Business Status" by the Korea Fair Trade Commission 닫기  This equates to one store per 1,000 people in the country. Now, convenience stores are no longer just places to sell daily necessities. They provide lifestyle-oriented services, such as laundry drop-offs and banking transactions, and even serve as test beds for various new products.

Among these services, parcel delivery provided by convenience stores is a prime example of utilizing the widespread network of stores, spread like a web throughout neighborhoods, as logistics hubs. The convenience store industry began partnering with logistics companies and introduced parcel delivery services in the early 2000s. This move aligned with the shared interests of logistics companies, convenience stores, and consumers.

From the perspective of parcel companies, there is no need for delivery drivers to visit multiple households; instead, they can collect parcels from a single convenience store. This increases delivery efficiency. Convenience stores benefit from the “sales tipping point effect,”2 2In the field of marketing, the "spillover effect" refers to a strategy of strategically adjusting the flow of customers visiting large retail stores to increase sales. In this context, it is used to mean the "cross-selling effect," which encourages customers to purchase additional products when they visit a convenience store. 닫기  as customers who visit the store to drop off parcels often end up purchasing other items. From the consumer’s perspective, there is no need to wait for a courier to visit their home or to go to a post office; they can simply go to a nearby convenience store and send parcels anywhere nationwide. Unlike regular courier services that do not accept packages on public holidays, convenience store parcel services are available 24/7, 365 days a year. However, the pricing is the same as that of standard courier services. In recent years, the price of domestic courier services has risen significantly, with the cost of convenience store parcel services now exceeding 5,000 KRW.

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