South Korea’s online shopping hit a new record high last year as the COVID-19 pandemic raised the demand for online food delivery services, statistical office data showed on February 5.
According to Statistics Korea, Shopping in the digital platform amounted to 192.89 trillion won, that’s 159.9 billion U.S. dollars, in 2021, which is 21 percent more than the previous year.
It is the largest sales to date since the relevant data began to be compiled in 2001. The volume of online shopping to the total retail sale reached a new yearly high of 28.7 percent in the past year.
Online food delivery services surged 48.2 percent over the year to hit a new high of 25.68 trillion won, and that’s 21.3 billion dollars, in 2021.
The culture and leisure and the travel and transport services in the digital space soared to 43.1 percent and 13.8 percent each last year amid the higher vaccination rate against COVID-19.
Mobile shopping through smartphones rose 27.6 percent from the last year to reach a fresh high of 138.2 trillion won i.e. 114.6 billion dollars, in 2021.