Online shopping jumps 12.5% in April on pandemic-led e-commerce shift

SEJONG -- Online shopping jumped 12.5 percent from a year earlier in April, data showed Wednesday, as the coronavirus pandemic prompted consumers to buy more goods via e-commerce platforms.

The value of online transactions came to 12.26 trillion won ($9.98 billion) in the month, up 1.3 trillion won from the same month last year, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The increase followed a 11.8 percent on-year gain in March.

The sharp increase in March was largely attributed to the pandemic that forced citizens to use online shops.

Under its social distancing campaign, launched in early March, the government forced all public facilities to temporarily shut down while also advising all major private institutions to do so as well.

Online sales of daily necessities, including sanitizer and detergent, rose 9.1 percent on-year to 1.08 trillion won.

Online purchases for offline activities, on the other hand, dropped sharply, with purchases for cultural events and tourism programs plunging 85.8 percent and 69.6 percent on-year, respectively.

Purchases made through mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, surged 18.4 percent on-year to some 7.9 trillion won in April, accounting for 66.3 percent of overall online shopping. (Yonhap)