Ahead of the peak tourism season marked by China's Labor Day holiday on May 1, GS25 is rolling out a comprehensive expansion of services covering everything from payments to experiential offerings, aiming to capture demand from foreign visitors to Korea.
According to the convenience store industry on the 19th, GS25 will offer extensive payment benefits linked to major simple-payment platforms to maximize shopping convenience for foreign tourists. Notably, GS25's marketing campaign features WeChat Pay and UnionPay promotions that are exclusive within the industry, a strategy designed to further boost its appeal to foreign customers.
GS25 will provide up to 10% preferential exchange rates for customers paying with WeChat Pay through the end of August. In addition, through March of next year, UnionPay users will receive an instant 15% discount at some 2,000 stores located in key commercial districts popular with foreign visitors, including Seoul's Jung-gu, Seongdong-gu, Gangnam-gu, and Jongno-gu districts.
The aggressive marketing push is backed by explosive growth in foreign customer sales. During last year's Labor Day holiday period (May 1-5), sales via foreign simple-payment platforms including WeChat Pay, Alipay, and UnionPay surged 61.8% year-on-year, reaping significant seasonal benefits. Building on these incentives and enhanced offline infrastructure, GS25 aims to firmly establish itself as a must-visit destination for foreign tourists this year.
In addition to payment benefits, approximately 1,000 stores in tourist-dense areas such as Jeju Island and Myeongdong offer a Tax Refund service that immediately deducts value-added tax on-site through passport readers linked to store POS systems. The company has also built a system allowing instant refunds via mobile passport through the Trip Pass app, even without a physical passport, enhancing accessibility.
Specialty stores that go beyond simple shopping channels to let customers directly experience Korea's latest trends are also drawing strong responses. The "New Annyeong Insadong" store, located on Insadong-gil in Jongno-gu, where foreign tourists make up a large portion of visitors, features diverse experiential content including AI beauty devices capable of personal color diagnostics, photo printing, ichiban kuji (lottery kiosks), and smoothie machines.
The AI beauty devices, which support a range of ethnic options including Asian, Arab, and Latin profiles, are particularly popular with foreign customers thanks to their precise facial proportion analysis and makeup styling recommendations. The store has also preemptively introduced merchandise from IGIN, the brand for which BTS member Jin serves as global ambassador, alongside Korean souvenirs such as keyrings and magnets, drawing K-pop fans as well.
