Customs officers check packages from abroad at a customs office in Incheon, west of Seoul, on Dec. 4, 2017. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The value of overseas direct purchases reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year.
As overseas travel remains restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local consumers purchased more through overseas direct purchase websites.
The value of overseas direct purchase stood at 1.41 trillion won (US$1.26 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up 44.2 percent from a year ago, the largest total recorded since Statistics Korea started compiling related data.
According to KoreaCenter Co., the operator of the overseas direct purchase platform Malltail, the number of overseas direct purchase orders reached 2.38 million last year, a sharp increase from 1.47 million in 2018 and 1.39 million in 2019.
The primary factor behind the surge in the amount of overseas direct purchases was the increase in the number of service providers, which contributed to solving the chronic problems of such services, including delivery speed, returning goods, language and payment.
The delivery period, for example, has been shortened to about a week from two weeks. In addition, a variety of new services have been added, including free delivery for items costing more than US$200 and the provision of birthday coupons and discount codes.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
