Online shopping sales in South Korea gained 2.6 percent from a year earlier in March. (Image created by AI/Chat GPT)
SEOUL, May 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping sales in South Korea gained 2.6 percent from a year earlier in March driven by rising demand for food products and relevant services, data showed Thursday.
The value of online shopping transactions stood at 22.42 trillion won (US$15.72 billion) in March, up 576.8 billion won from a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.
It marked the largest amount ever for any March since 2017 when the agency began compiling relevant data.
The growth was led by a sharp increase in demand for food services, which jumped 14.6 percent on-year to 3.36 trillion won.
Online sales of food and beverages also advanced 9.8 percent on-year to 3.09 trillion won, and those of agricultural and fisheries products climbed 11.3 percent to 1.16 trillion won.
But online shopping for e-coupon services plummeted 44.6 percent to 486.7 billion won.
Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices increased 4.8 percent on-year to 17.24 trillion won.
Mobile gadget-based shopping accounted for 76.9 percent of the total online sales in March, up 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier, the data showed.
(Yonhap)
