MANILA – 7-Eleven, Mini Stop and Family Mart are popping up everywhere in the Philippines for a reason – the convenience store is the fastest growing retail channel in the Philippines.
A report from Kantar Worldpanel revealed that convenience store purchases have grown 45% from January 2014 to January 2015. In comparison, direct sales grew by 31% while drug stores recorded 11%.
Around 18.5% of Filipino homes are now buying in convenience stores, also an increase from 16.1% recorded last year. This is equal to 566,991 more families buying goods from this retail channel.
Majority of convenience store buyers are from the NCR, South Luzon and Mindanao belonging to Class ABC and E urban households, typically comprised of older homes with residents aged 13 and above.
While NCR had the most buyers, with 34% of homes purchasing goods from convenience stores, Mindanao shoppers are the most frequent at nine times a year compared to NCR residents who purchase from convenience stores only 5 times a year.
What do Filipinos buy at convenience stores?
Filipinos primarily buy food, accounting for 8 out of the top 10 selling FMCG categories in convenience stores. This translates to 59.3% of total FMCG sales from this retail channel coming from food, followed by beverages (23.8%) and personal care products (13.5%).
Partly due to its tropical climate, ice cream remains as the top food purchase, followed by milk, snack and alcoholic beverages. New items have emerged in the list such as diapers, water, and fabric cleaners, but respondents in this year’s study dropped coffee and hair care products from their shopping basket.
But while Filipinos spend the most amount of money for food purchases, the personal care category experienced the biggest growth at 2.2% compared to last year’s figures.
