Convenience stores are collectively ramping up their efforts in the fresh snack sector.

Entering 2026, the explosive popularity of fresh snacks has far exceeded expectations. Not only are native brands such as Jiduquan, Jinlimen and Pumama thriving, but fresh snacks are also becoming the core strategic focus across the convenience store track at present.

From leading Japanese brands including 7-Eleven, Lawson and FamilyMart, to local national chains like Bianlifeng and Meiyijia, to South Korean players represented by CU, as well as deeply rooted regional operators such as Tangjiu and Meiyitian, almost all mainstream convenience stores have placed fresh snacks at the core of category upgrading. Short-shelf baked goods, fresh-locked braised snacks, refrigerated desserts, fresh-cut fruits... are no longer supplementary products in the corners of freezers, but core drivers to attract customer flow and boost gross profit.

What exactly makes fresh snacks so magical? Why do convenience stores regard them as the "arrow to break the deadlock"?

What they are targeting is never just the snacks themselves

At a time when the dividends of standard products are peaking, convenience stores are facing mounting survival pressure day by day.

Data from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association shows that the total number of stores of the top 100 convenience store enterprises in China reached 208,000 in 2025, with a year-on-year increase of only 5.6%, and the net increase in stores for the whole year dropped by more than 26% compared with 2024. The average daily revenue per store fell to 4,453 yuan, down 3.9% year on year, the average daily number of customers per store decreased by 8.7%, and the proportion of comparable stores that achieved sales growth was less than 30%. The "2026 China Convenience Store Development Report" jointly released by CCFA and KPMG points out more directly: more than 70% of enterprises have experienced a decline in customer traffic, and 60% of enterprises have seen a year-on-year drop in net profit. Traditional packaged snacks have transparent prices, the channels are extremely involuted, and the growth ceiling is clearly visible.

From this perspective, convenience stores need a new category to break the deadlock, and the value of fresh snacks has become prominent at this moment.

As a rising star in the track, the emergence of fresh snacks is not abrupt. Several years ago, *Retail Circle* already predicted that the next outlet of the snack track would definitely be "freshly made snacks". With the continuous upward trend of the two core lines of consumer demands and brand supply chain capabilities, consumers' attention to "short shelf life", "freshly made" and "freshness" has exceeded their attention to brands and reputation, which is exactly the foundation of the competitiveness of fresh snacks.

It is understood that most fresh snacks are launched as private brands, with few intermediate links, and their gross profit margin is significantly higher than that of standard products. Data from Tangjiu Convenience shows that the gross profit margin of its fresh snacks is above 35%, and the average daily sales of a single SKU per store can reach more than 10 times that of traditional standard products. The survey by Nielsen IQ also confirms this point: fresh food in convenience stores has accounted for about 45% of the total sales, which is the core pillar to boost the profitability of each store.

The addition of fresh snacks just fills the gross profit gap of convenience stores.

In fact, what convenience stores are targeting is far more than the snacks themselves. Compared with the short-term gross profit, the far-reaching value lies in the construction of differentiated competitive barriers. Peng Jianzhen, Secretary-General of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, once put forward a consensus in the industry: everyone has standard products, and only fresh food can build barriers. Fresh food has always been the comfort zone of convenience stores. For a long time in the past, convenience stores firmly held the fresh food channel relying on the cold chain supply chain, but with the overall improvement of the industry's supply chain level, many formats such as supermarkets, community supermarkets, and instant retail have gradually nurtured their own cold chain supply chain foundations.

The advantage of fresh food is slipping away from the hands of convenience stores. With the stagnation of the core moat, convenience stores need a segmented category that can be reproduced on a large scale based on the original supply chain to deepen their differentiated advantages, and it is not a difficult choice to pick the right one.

In addition, according to relevant industry data reports, 58% of mainland consumers are highly worried about the risks of ultra-processed foods, and 92% will actively avoid ultra-processed foods; the research report of Zhongtai Securities mentions that 67% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for clean label foods. The calculation of Zheshang Securities shows that the domestic fresh snack market size has grown from less than 5 billion yuan in 2020 to 18 billion yuan in 2025, with an annual compound growth rate of over 40%. In other words, fresh snacks not only have high demand from young consumer groups, but also naturally fit the "buy and eat immediately" scenario of convenience stores.

*Retail Circle* believes that the collective focus of convenience stores on fresh snacks is to create a new development curve of "1+1>2".

Three major systems, with their own well-organized layout paths

Convenience stores of different systems have completely different logics for developing fresh snacks, with their own path dependence and resource endowments.

Japanese brands are the first players to implant the fresh food logic into their operation systems, and their layout of fresh snacks is the most systematic. Lawson's fresh food sales proportion has remained in the range of 40%-50% all year round, and the fresh snack category continues to expand, from Japanese desserts to short-shelf baked goods, and then to fresh-locked braised snacks. Following the path of "regional partners + cooperation with local food enterprises", it quickly iterates local flavors in Sichuan, Central China and other regions, integrating fresh snacks into all-day consumption scenarios. FamilyMart has deployed 12 central kitchens and fresh food factories across the country, following the route of "local R&D + local production + local distribution", with the proportion of localized raw material procurement exceeding 85%. Focusing on the operation logic of five meals a day, it arranges short-shelf cakes, freshly baked bread and light crispy snacks in the afternoon tea and snack time periods. 7-Eleven has launched its own fresh snack brand "7 Fresh Snacks" in Jiangsu, with the first batch of more than ten baked products highlighting the concept of "fresh material selection, fresh production, fresh launch". It will first polish the model through the mature supply chain pilot in East China, and then steadily replicate it outward.

Korean brands follow the experience-oriented path driven by hit products, breaking through the market with single-product mindshare. Represented by CU, it is good at using the "product creation" thinking to replace the "product selection" logic. One Yonsei milk cream bun has sold 100 million units in total in 4 years, penetrating the mind of young consumers with national-level desserts. The stores deeply bind fresh snacks with freshly made drinks and self-service scenarios, turning "taking away goods" into "instant enjoyment experience". With IP co-branding and seasonal limited products, it transforms purchasing behavior into novelty-seeking consumption, resulting in extremely high stickiness of young users.

Local Chinese convenience stores are pragmatic. Meiyijia, which has more than 40,000 stores, is building a standardized fresh snack operation model, arranging products according to the rhythm of six meals a day. Tangjiu in Shanxi has built 6 self-owned factories and 3 4A-level logistics centers, with three deliveries a day. More than 280 self-developed fresh foods include a large number of localized fresh snacks, and it also integrates Shanxi vinegar culture into baked categories. Suguo has renovated 19 convenience stores in Nanjing, arranging the fresh food matrix according to five time periods a day, with the combination of freshly baked egg tarts, cut fruits and hot drinks in the afternoon to meet the afternoon tea scenario.

On the whole, Japanese and Korean convenience stores have longer experience in the industry, with higher systematization and marketing adaptability, but they also have their own differences. Japanese convenience stores focus on systematic deep cultivation in the layout of fresh snacks, while Korean ones focus on hit product experience. Local Chinese convenience stores focus on integration with "catering". Although their layout time is relatively short and the quality control system is still being gradually improved, they have the advantages of fast response speed and strong sinking ability, and will have more development space in the future.

"Freshness" is the core advantage that cannot be copied

Even when operating fresh snacks, convenience stores have their own natural advantages, which are the core competitiveness that specialty stores, wholesale stores and bakery chains cannot match.

The minute-level instant fulfillment supported by high network density is the most core natural barrier of convenience stores. Convenience stores cover business districts, communities and transportation hubs with high density, so consumers can buy products within a 5 to 10 minutes' walk. This minute-level instant fulfillment capability cannot be achieved by e-commerce, nor can specialty stores have such a dense network of outlets. Peng Jianzhen once pointed out that what really distinguishes convenience stores from other formats is this "buy and eat immediately" capability.

The linkage effect of all-day consumption scenarios amplifies the conversion efficiency of fresh snacks. Convenience stores cover all-day consumption scenarios including breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon tea and midnight snacks. Fresh snacks can be sold in bundles with high-frequency rigid-demand categories such as coffee and beverages. For example, an afternoon tea set of a cup of coffee with a short-shelf cake drives snack consumption through high-frequency rigid demand, and the joint purchase rate is much higher than that of specialty stores that only operate a single category.

The stable base of existing passenger flow greatly reduces the customer acquisition cost of fresh snacks. Convenience stores have accumulated stable daily passenger flow through cigarettes, drinking water and emergency supplies. Fresh snacks do not need to attract customers from scratch, as long as they meet the incremental demand of in-store customers, the customer acquisition cost is much lower than that of opening independent stores.

The reuse of the mature fresh food system forms a cost advantage that is difficult to replicate. Relying on the existing central factories and daily distribution system, fresh snacks can share production capacity, logistics and quality control, greatly reducing initial investment and operation cost, which is the scale effect that independent fresh snack brands do not have.

"Developing short-shelf products" requires long-termism

Although convenience stores hope to get a share of the fresh snack track, from the perspective of the overall development trend of the industry, fresh snacks are actually a path that is easier to say than done.

The first challenge is loss control. Data from Nielsen IQ shows that the loss rate of fresh food in convenience stores is as high as 8% to 15%. The shelf life of most fresh snacks is 3 to 7 days, and some freshly made products only have a shelf life of the same day. The accuracy of order placement directly determines the profit and loss of the category. The fluctuation of passenger flow on working days and holidays, as well as the impact of weather, all increase the difficulty of inventory management.

The misalignment of consumer mind cognition is another invisible threshold. In the inherent cognition of consumers, convenience stores are places for having meals and making emergency purchases, not the first choice for buying high-quality casual snacks. In addition, the shelf space of convenience stores is limited, so it is impossible to provide a full-category immersive display like specialty stores, which naturally limits product attractiveness and conversion efficiency.

This means that if fresh snacks want to circulate in convenience stores for a long time and even become a new differentiated advantage for them, they need to lay a solid foundation. This is not just a simple matter of putting goods on shelves, but to combine the increasingly popular "five meals a day" scenario demand of convenience stores, penetrate into light food and meal replacement scenarios, divert part of the demand for casual food delivery, and cover more instant consumption scenarios.

In the view of *Retail Circle*, what is more important is to build a fresh snack layout logic with convenience store characteristics. This style change is not only reflected in product categories and flavors, but also needs to combine digital intelligence, store differentiation and regional urban characteristics to achieve the pattern of "one store, one style", implement a hierarchical store operation system, improve the matching degree between categories and scenarios, instead of "selling whatever sells well", it should be "selling whatever is suitable for our stores".

This is a long process of trial and error and in-depth exploration. Convenience stores need to maintain a steady mindset: short-shelf products cannot make "fast money". Only by continuously improving from the identity of "convenient life guarantor" to "instant life steward", can they get rid of the situation where the standard product convenience advantage is gradually eroded, and re-build the category moat of convenience stores relying on fresh snacks.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Retail Circle", written by Li Da, and authorized for release by 36Kr.