South Korea's online shopping sees modest increase in October
Date
12/2/2024 2:12:24 AM
(MENAFN) South Korea's online shopping saw an increase in October, driven by strong demand for food delivery, farm products, and books, according to official data released on Monday. The total value of online shopping reached 20.28 trillion won (USD14.5 billion) in October, marking a 0.6 percent rise from the previous year, as reported by Statistics Korea.
Although online shopping continued to grow, the pace of growth has slowed significantly from previous months. In April, the growth rate was 10.6 percent, but it decreased to 5.1 percent in July and further dropped to 2.2 percent in September. This slowdown has been attributed to overdue payments by two e-commerce platforms that filed for court receivership in July after failing to settle payments with vendors and issue refunds to customers.
The online purchase of food and beverages surged by 17.5 percent, with significant increases in demand for food delivery and agricultural products. Online book sales rose by 24.0 percent, while transactions in categories like travel, daily necessities, clothing, and furniture showed moderate growth.
However, the market saw a decline in the online transaction of e-coupons, which plummeted by 51.0 percent, reflecting weaker demand for gift items like coffee and cake through e-coupons. Additionally, sales of items like backpacks, footwear, sports equipment, car accessories, and mobile devices fell by double digits. On the positive side, shopping via smartphones, tablets, and other mobile gadgets grew by 4.2 percent, making up 76.0 percent of the total online shopping transactions in October.
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