3월 온라인 쇼핑 역대 최대...미세먼지 영향
The total value of online shopping in Korea has hit an all-time high, mainly on increased sales of electronics and home appliances, as well as food and beverages.
Our Seo Eun-kyung has the details.
The total value of online shopping in South Korea edged up to a new record high in March, reflecting the growing trend of people choosing to buy online.
According to data released by Statistics Korea for March, South Koreans bought goods worth about 9-point-6 billion U.S dollars.
That's up 18-point-6 percent on-year and renews the all-time record high previously set in December.
It was mainly driven by the rising demand for electronics and home appliances...
According to Statistics Korea, the 40-point-1 percent sales increase in such items mainly came from air purifiers as well as clothes dryers.
The country's statistics agency attributed the rise to Korea's worsening fine dust air pollution.
Another contributor that drove online sales was the food and beverage sector, which jumped 89-point-8 percent compared to March last year.
The demand was fueled by sales promotions and wider consumer choices of food delivery services.
Online shopping proved especially popular on mobile phones.
The value of mobile shopping stood at about 6-point-4 trillion U.S dollars in March, up 27-point-9 percent from the same period last year.
The rise increased the proportion of mobile shopping from 58-point-4 percent to 63 percent of all online purchases.
Seo Eunkyung, Arirang News.