29#2023零售报告：韩国1

Over the past five years, the modern South Korean grocery market has been stagnant, with annual
growth limited to approximately 1 percent. While the overall size of the market has held steady, its
dynamics have completely shifted. The hypermarket and supermarket category, which accounted
for about 20 percent of total retail sales in South Korea in 2017, had traditionally been the dominant
format, but now it is smaller than both the online and convenience store categories. This shift was
caused by a combination of four major forces.
Demographic change. South Korea’s population demographics have changed dramatically at
an accelerated pace. In 2020, the country hit the “population death cross”—when the number
of newborns is less than the number of the deceased.1
In addition, single households accounted
for approximately 35 percent of total households in 2021, up ten percentage points over the past
decade. The increase in single households accelerates the channel shift from hypermarket and
supermarket to online and convenience stores.
Isolation due to COVID-19. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Korean
government enforced a “vaccination pass” for public spaces, including hypermarkets and
supermarkets. People had to show their vaccine pass or a negative PCR result to access stores. On
top of this rule, people were afraid of going to public spaces because of the risk of infection. As a
result, people preferred to go to convenience stores within a short distance of their homes or to buy
things online, and this combination accelerated the movement among channels.