The complete package
Since 1999, convenience store corporations have also crossed over into "non-store shopping," offering catalogue purchasing and direct-order services. Items for sale include New Year's specialty foods, Mother's Day cakes, cosmetics, travel packages, and more. Taking advantage of the convenience store network, customers can place an order online, then go to an outlet to pay and pick up their stuff; or they can order in one outlet-say, using their lunch hour to place an order in shop A near their office-and pick up at another (outlet B, just a few steps away from home).
In particular, the New Year's foods-which each year inevitably attract a media storm of "taste comparisons"-have proven to be lifesavers for many an urban "office lady" who is less than stellar in the kitchen, and have spared professional women the chore of standing around the stove all New Year's Eve. Although "convenience-store New-Year's food" that is frozen and then microwaved has never gotten very good culinary reviews, by selling complete sets of a whole range of New Year's dishes and playing up the fact that these have been created in cooperation with famous chefs or famous restaurants, the convenience stores have accurately targeted the habits of many modern people who crave speed, convenience, and brand names. This is why future prospects remain bright.
In 2004, the number-three chain in Taiwan, Hi-Life, introduced their "Life-ET" multimedia kiosk (MMK). Using a touch-sensitive computer screen, consumers have access to even more commercial choices, further expanding the range of markets that convenience store can lay claim to.
Hi-Life marketing director Zhao Kunren relates that MMK platforms have long been essential in all convenience stores in Japan, but most of them mainly sell tickets for shows and the like. After bringing them to Taiwan, and considering the local culture here, Hi-Life added new functions, which allow customers to do things like use credit-card bonus points to purchase in-store products, print out bills and pay them on the spot, and download ringback tones.
In 2006, 7-Eleven and Family Mart followed suit, installing their "ibon" and "FamiPort" devices with functions like those in Hi-Life. With the FamiPort, for example, since starting the sale of high-speed-rail tickets this year, Family Mart can sell upwards of 10,000 HSR tickets per day, turning these small shopfronts into transshipment centers which can seemingly do it all.
Convenience stores have set off one consumer frenzy after another. Right now the most notable is fresh-made coffee, for which you will even see people lining up early in the morning.
7-Eleven, which failed in its first attempt to sell fresh-brewed coffee in stores back in 1986, went back to the well in 2004 and came out with the low-priced "City Cafe" line. Following a successful 2007 marketing campaign featuring actress Guey Lun-mei, 7-Eleven has been selling 30 million cups of coffee a year. Not surprisingly, in 2008 Family Mart and Hi-Life announced that they too were jumping into the fresh-brewed-coffee market.
With President Corporation (owners of 7-Eleven) also owning Starbucks in Taiwan, and Family Mart having the backing of Mr. Brown Coffee, Hi-Life set to work building on the assets of Kuang Chuan Dairy Company. Struggling against two powerful rivals, Hi-Life came up with a series of baked goods, ready-made breakfasts and simple meals. The company also began stocking selected bestsellers. The baked goods alone have increased revenues in stores by NT$10-20,000 per day, and a Hi-Life shop can sell four or five times as many copies per day of a particularly popular book as can an ordinary bookshop.
From tea eggs and "slurpies" to rice congee, Japanese oden, boxed meals, and fresh-brewed coffee, each new offering by convenience stores has set off a consumer frenzy, transformed the eating and drinking habits of people in Taiwan, and driven changes in the food and beverage industry. Now stores have installed seats for customers to sit and relax, marking yet another new departure.