Online shopping sales in Korea jumped 21 percent in March from a year earlier on robust sales of clothes and electronic devices, a government report showed Monday.

Total online transactions reached 5.2 trillion won ($4.5 billion) in the third month of 2016, compared with 4.3 trillion won a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.

The March tally also marks a 10 percent rise from a month earlier, a turnaround from a 10 percent on-month drop in February.Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile gadgets also soared 50.6 percent on-year to 2.7 trillion won to account for 51.6 percent of all online sales in February, up slightly from the 51.1 percent share the previous month.

In March, 569.4 billion won worth of garments were sold online, up 20.7 percent from a year earlier, while sales of electronics rose 23.3 percent on-year to 543.3 billion won.

Online purchases of cosmetics soared 41.7 percent on-year to 405.7 billion won, while those of travel packages and reservations gained 10.3 percent to 773.2 billion won. (Yonhap)