Online shopping in Korea (Yonhap)
Online shopping in South Korea grew 15.2 percent on-year in February as more people bought products via e-commerce platforms amid the pandemic, data showed Tuesday.
The value of online shopping transactions stood at 13.7 trillion won ($12.2 billion) in February, compared with 11.9 trillion won the previous year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.
Online shopping has gathered pace since last year as people preferred shopping in a non-contact manner due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rose 20.2 percent on-year to 9.73 trillion won in February. Mobile shopping made up 70.7 percent of the total value of online shopping.
Online purchases of foodstuffs, food delivery services and electronics goods remained firm on the back of demand from stay-at-home consumers, the statistics agency said.
Online transactions of food delivery services jumped 64.6 percent on-year to 733 billion won, and those of food and beverages rose 29.1 percent to 431 billion won.
But online purchases of travel-related services declined 18.6 percent on-year to 132 billion won as in-person service sectors were hit hard by the pandemic. Sales of cosmetics also fell 14.1 percent to 148 billion won, the data showed. (Yonhap)