As convenience chains work to redefine their role as lifestyle hubs here, CU is pushing ahead with services aimed squarely at the country’s expanding population of foreign nationals.
Among the most recent additions is CU’s in-store visa support service, launched this month, which links customers with local visa service provider K-Visa. CU is the first convenience store chain in the country to offer such a service.
Foreign customers can access the service by scanning a QR code, which connects them to an administrative specialist. Assistance covers a broad range of visa types -- including marriage, employment, investment, immigration and permanent residency -- with multilingual support available in English, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese.
The initiative signals CU’s intent to use its nationwide footprint to serve the everyday needs of the country’s 2.65 million expatriates -- a record figure last year, according to the Ministry of Justice.
“This type of service is part of our broader goal of becoming a lifestyle platform tailored to an international clientele,” a CU official said. “We want to make everyday life easier for foreign residents.”
The visa service is currently in a pilot phase, available at around 50 locations in areas with large foreign populations. CU plans to expand the service to 1,000 stores nationwide by year-end, factoring in user feedback.
In addition to visa support launched amid a surge in the expat population, CU is also aiming at foreign tourists, who now represent a significant share of its customer base.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization, 3.87 million foreign visitors arrived in the first quarter of 2025 alone, up 13.7 percent from a year earlier. Total inbound tourism reached 16.37 million in 2024, a 48.4 percent jump from the previous year.
That surge in arrivals is showing up in CU’s store traffic. Transactions with overseas cards at CU, according to the company, surged 177.1 percent last year, with another 54.9 percent increase logged in the first quarter of this year.
To accommodate heavier international foot traffic, CU initiated a trial run of its AI-powered interpretation service at select stores in March. The system, accessible via in-store tablets, supports real-time translation in 38 languages, including English, Japanese, Hindi, Czech and Swahili.
CU's currency exchange kiosks have also seen a sharp uptick, with usage in April soaring more than 1,000 percent compared to their launch month in late 2023. Meanwhile, the chain’s tax refund service has attracted more than 26,000 users since its rollout in 2023.
The chain’s deepening focus on foreign clientele comes as demand in the convenience store industry begins to soften. According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, convenience store sales dipped 0.4 percent in the January-March period, the first such decline since official tracking began in 2013.
minmin@heraldcorp.com
