DeliveryHero Korea's new convenience store service, YoMart, is disrupting the South Korean market, with some legacy stores experiencing a 20% drop in delivery revenue within a week of YoMart's launch.
The service, launched in March, partners with leading national convenience store franchises GS25, CU, and Seven-Eleven to provide real-time inventory management systems.
A survey of 35 convenience stores in Gangnam District, where YoMart was launched, showed that stores in residential areas rely more heavily on delivery applications than those in commercial spaces.
YoMart simplifies the shopping process for users, allowing them to make selections faster and enjoy shorter delivery times than traditional convenience store applications.
Although the revenue share of the delivery platform is still tiny for traditional convenience stores, an increase in users' reliance on such services could lead to additional advertising costs for store owners.
Delivery Hero Korea offers advertising packages to convenience store owners to protect its market share from Coupang's CoupangEats.
However, the launch of YoMart could jeopardize the M&A deal between Delivery Hero and Woowa Brothers.
The Korea Small Business Association has called on YoMart to stop disrupting small convenience store owners and urged the Fair Trade Commission to reject the M&A deal, citing monopoly and disruption concerns.
Meanwhile, Woowa Brothers' B-Mart plans to expand its 5,000-product platform nationwide within six months.
