Taiwan's Convenience Store Number Grows for Two Straight Years

Taipei, Oct. 22, 2012, (CENS)--Despite flat economy, the number of Taiwan's convenience stores has risen two years consecutively: In 2011 there were 9,831 such stores, up 3.67% year on year (YoY), according to recent statistics compiled by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

During the past decade, growth of convenience stores once dropped to 0.45% annually in 2009 from two-digit rise of 11.31%, then rebounding to higher growths YoY of 2.57% and 3.67% in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

In addition to round-the-clock operation, convenience store number has been rising due to ubiquity, wide ranging products and services as fee collection, home delivery, merchandise pre-ordering, free Wi-Fi, making such outlets a widely-relied-on fixture in Taiwan.

Accordingly total customer flow increased from 2.736 billion in 2010 to 2.878 billion people in 2011, up an annual 142 million people.

Based on the survey, New Taipei City (formerly Taipei County) leads with 1,995 stores or 20.29% of the total in Taiwan, followed by Taipei City's 1,453 stores and Taoyuan County's 1,152 stores, or 14.78% and 11.72%, respectively.

Taiwan's five special municipalities of Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City, and Kaohsiung City have 6,150 convenience stores or 65.56% of the total, reflecting locational strategy of operators.