Seoul: Online shopping sales in South Korea increased by 2.6 percent in March compared to the previous year, driven by a surge in demand for food products and related services, data revealed on Thursday. The total value of online shopping transactions for the month reached 22.42 trillion won (US$15.72 billion), marking an increase of 576.8 billion won from the previous year, as per the data from Statistics Korea.
According to Yonhap News Agency, this figure represents the highest amount recorded for any March since the agency began tracking such data in 2017. The growth was primarily fueled by a sharp rise in demand for food services, which saw a 14.6 percent increase year-on-year, reaching 3.36 trillion won.
In addition to food services, online sales of food and beverages grew by 9.8 percent year-on-year to 3.09 trillion won. The sales of agricultural and fisheries products also saw an increase, climbing by 11.3 percent to 1.16 trillion won. However, the data revealed a significant decline in online shopping for e-coupon services, which dropped by 44.6 percent to 486.7 billion won.
Purchases made through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets rose by 4.8 percent year-on-year, totaling 17.24 trillion won. Mobile gadget-based shopping accounted for 76.9 percent of the total online sales in March, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the previous year, the data indicated.