Online shopping sales in Korea surged 21 percent in January from a year earlier on robust demand for foodstuffs and cosmetics, a government report showed Thursday.
Total online transactions reached 5.21 trillion won ($4.27 billion) in the first month of 2016, compared to 4.3 trillion won a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.
The January tally, however, retreated 2.8 percent from a record high of 5.36 trillion won in December.
Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices also skyrocketed 51.1 percent on-year to 2.67 trillion won to account for 51.2 percent of all online sales in January, up slightly from 50 percent the previous month.
Some 397.2 billion won worth of cosmetics were sold online in January, up 38 percent from a year earlier, while online sales of foodstuffs soared 43.2 percent on-year to 532.2 billion won over the cited period.Online purchases of clothing gained 12.2 percent on-year to 511.4 billion won and electronics appliances rose 19.9 percent to 537.5 billion won. (Yonhap)
![[KH Explains] Samsung chief says he is still ‘hungry’ for foundry growth](http://res.heraldm.com/phpwas/restmb_idxmake.php?idx=644&simg=/content/image/2024/10/08/20241008050604_0.jpg)
