S. Korea seeks further deregulation for retailers amid pandemic

South Korea said Wednesday it will remove unnecessary regulations to help local retail companies to utilize more high-end technologies and keep up with soaring demand for delivery services amid the new coronavirus pandemic.

"Online sales platforms have emerged as the backbone of the so-called non-contact economy (amid the COVID-19 pandemic)," Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo said during his visit to a logistics center of SSG.COM, the online shopping unit of retail conglomerate Shinsegae.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a harsh blow to most industrial sectors across the globe, online retailers have been considered as among a few winners as more people refrained from visiting offline stores.

South Korea's online retailers enjoyed a 16.9 percent increase in their sales on-year in April, as people ordered food and daily necessities from home.

Over the cited period, the country's major offline retailers saw their sales fall 5.5 percent, the data showed.

To further promote the growth of the industry, South Korea said it will join forces with related businesses to establish a database of products, with a goal of building a system that can provide customized data to retailers.

The country will also help smaller online businesses establish a comprehensive logistics center equipped with state-of-the-art technologies for all stages of delivery, from packing to shipping. (Yonhap)