The amount of online shopping transactions made surpassed 78 trillion won ($71.6 billion) last year, the highest ever and up 19.2 percent from the previous year, data from Statistics Korea showed.

Online shopping has consistently grown since 2014 by around 17 to 20 percent.

Shopping online is also becoming more mainstream, with 21 percent of all retail sales in the month of December having taken place in cyberspace.

Mobile shopping, in particular, marked a significant rise, extending to 47.8 trillion last year, up 34.6 percent on-year. (khnews@heraldcorp.com)