(Image: Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping in South Korea surged 6.3 percent on-year in January as the purchase of travel services more than doubled on eased COVID-19 restrictions around the globe, data showed Friday.
The value of online shopping transactions amounted to 17.91 trillion won (US$13.64 billion) last month, compared with 16.8 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.
Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices increased 5.6 percent on-year to 13.4 trillion won. They accounted for 75.3 percent of the total online shopping, down 0.5 percentage point.
The overall growth was led by online sales of travel and transportation, which reached 1.8 trillion won, up from 917.5 billion won tallied a year earlier, the data showed.
Sales of food moved up 10.3 percent to reach 2.56 trillion won, and those of e-coupons, which refer to online gift cards with bar codes, advanced 16.8 percent to 709.8 billion won.
The demand for food delivery services, meanwhile, fell 8.3 percent to 2.2 trillion won, apparently as more people dined out amid eased concerns over the virus.
(Yonhap)
