Online shopping up in S. Korea in Sept over strong food delivery demand

Seoul : Online shopping sales in South Korea grew 2 per cent on-year in September, driven by increased demand for food delivery services and mobile devices, the statistics agency said Friday.

According to data from Statistics Korea, the combined value of online shopping transactions came to 19.56 trillion won ($14.21 billion) in September, compared with 19.18 trillion won tallied a year earlier, Yonhap news agency reported.

Spending on food and beverages surged 10.5 per cent on-year to reach 3.02 trillion won, and sales for food delivery services also advanced 17.3 per cent to 2.51 trillion won.

Purchases of mobile devices saw an increase of 94.9 per cent, reaching 738.5 billion won.

Everyday items' sales on online platforms rose 7.9 per cent to 1.51 trillion won.

Online shopping for e-coupon services, on the other hand, plunged 48.8 per cent on-year to 502.7 billion won, following payment delays by TMON and WeMakePrice.

The two e-commerce platforms, owned by Singapore-based company Qoo10, filed for court receivership in July after failing to make payments to vendors and issue refunds to customers due to liquidity issues stemming from aggressive merger deals by their owner.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices climbed 7.7 per cent on-year to 14.92 trillion won.

Mobile-based shopping accounted for 76.3 per cent of total online sales in September, up by 4.1 percentage points from a year earlier, the data showed.

Meanwhile, retail sales in South Korea also surged 8.2 per cent in September from a year earlier, as consumers turned to "revenge shopping" amid the prolonged virus pandemic.

The combined sales of 25 major offline and online retailers reached 13.2 trillion won ($11.26 billion) last month, compared with 11.9 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Yonhap reported.