(Image: Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Online shopping in South Korea moved up 7.7 percent in June from a year earlier on the back of a rebound in the demand for travel services, data showed Tuesday.
The value of online shopping transactions amounted to 18.42 trillion won (US$14.41 billion) in June, compared with 17.1 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.
The growth was mostly led by the travel and transportation services, which shot up 30.4 percent on-year to hit 1.96 trillion won, as more people traveled amid lifted virus-related restrictions.
Online sales of food and beverages advanced 14.8 percent to hit 2.41 trillion won as well, and those of e-coupons, which refer to online gift cards, shot up 46.7 percent to 734 billion won.
The demand for food delivery services reached 2.1 trillion won, up 0.8 percent on-year, and online sales of clothes came to 1.5 trillion won, down 1.7 percent over the period.
Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rose 5.8 percent on-year to 13.44 trillion won. They accounted for 73 percent of the total online shopping, down 1.3 percentage points on-year, it added.
South Koreans’ direct purchase of goods from overseas online shopping malls in the second quarter, meanwhile, reached 1.63 trillion won in June, up 25.6 percent on-year.
China accounted for 777.8 billion won, more than doubling over the period, followed by the United States with 469.6 billion won, the data showed.
By product, clothes and other fashion items accounted for 756.7 billion won of the country’s total direct purchases, up 45.8 percent on-year, followed by foodstuffs with 382.6 billion won, which rose 6.7 percent over the period.
South Korea’s direct overseas sales via online malls reached 453.6 billion won in June, down 10.3 percent on-year.
By destination, China took up 309.2 billion won, followed by the U.S. with 60 billion won and Japan with 51.5 billion won.
Sales of cosmetics fell 8.1 percent over the period to 298.8 billion won, followed by clothes with 65.7 billion won, which moved down 13.6 percent, the data also showed.
(Yonhap)
