Globally, convenience stores saw year-over-year value sales changes from -4.4% to 135% across 31 countries measured by NIQ (formerly known as NielsenIQ) in the third quarter of 2023, according to the NACS/NIQ Q3 2023 Global Convenience Store Industry Report.

The report measures value sales, showing there was strong value sales growth across multiple continents—11 countries saw sales increase of at least 10.2% and only two countries (Hong Kong and Denmark) saw sales declines.

Value sales growth was particularly pronounced in Latin America, with eight countries experiencing increases of at least 10.2%, followed by two in the Asia-Pacific region and one in Europe.

“Notably, Argentina stood out with a remarkable 135% increase in convenience store value sales (compared to a 115% increase in unit prices), underscoring the resilience of the convenience channel in the face of extreme inflationary pressures,” noted Tracey Massey, NIQ’s chief operating officer.

While Q3 2023 exhibited overall strong growth, the growth was less robust than the previous quarter. Nineteen of the 31 countries reported weaker growth in Q3 compared to the previous quarter.

The 39-page report looks at overall sales by country, unit sales increase and unit price increases, in addition to a deeper dive singling out 5 “what’s hot” and 5 “what’s not” categories.

Some of the categories experiencing huge sales increases in specific countries may soon be coming to convenience stores across the world—or may already be gaining a foothold in markets focused on specific ethnic favorites. One example is Gel Dessert RTD, which saw sales surge more than 121% in Indonesia and can also be found in ethnic markets within a few miles of NACS’ Alexandria, Virginia, office, noted Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president of strategic industry initiatives.

Published quarterly by NIQ and NACS since Q1 2022, the Global Convenience Store Industry Reports focused on global, regional and country-level views of the convenience channel. They were created to help convenience channels understand changing consumer dynamics, uncover the issues impacting consumers globally, showcase opportunities and challenges in the industry and contribute to a unified understanding of trends impacting individual trade areas for the global convenience store industry.  The quarterly reports are available to NACS members only.