Travelers wait in a line to go through procedures for departure at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, on July 1, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — With South Korea on track to shift to a phase of ‘living with COVID-19’ and a gradual recovery of normal life, an increasing number of online shopping malls are strengthening their travel product offerings.
Prior to the pandemic, travel was an important category in e-commerce business, accounting for a double-digit share in the revenue of some online shopping sites.
WeMakePrice Inc. launched a beta service after releasing a vertical app (a shopping site focusing on a specific product group) specializing in travel and leisure.
The app offers a full collection of WeMakePrice’s travel and performance products, including performance tickets, domestic accommodations, activities, plane tickets, and theme and region-based travel guidebooks.
Lotte Shopping Co.’s integrated online shopping store Lotte ON revealed that Yanolja, the country’s biggest accommodation booking app, will set up its own shop within the platform and start selling travel-related products from next week.
Lotte ON noted that Yanolja would start selling more than 20,000 leisure and accommodation products, contributing to bringing more travel products to the platform.
“Despite the increase in non-face-to-face consumption resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, some online shopping malls saw their revenue decline, in part due to sluggish sales of travel products,” an industry official said.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
