Online Shopping Grows 11.8% in March

The online shopping transaction value marked 12.6 trillion won in March, up 11.8 percent from the same period last year, Statistics Korea announced on May 6.

The statistics office said online sales of food products, household goods, books and home electric appliances rose sharply as people stayed indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In contrast, fashion items and services, including travel arrangement and transportation services and culture and leisure services posted a sharp decline.  

The mobile shopping transaction value reached 8.47 trillion won in March, up 19.2 percent from a year ago. The figure accounted for 67.3 percent of the total online shopping transaction value, up 4.2 percentage points from the same period last year.