[Graphic News] Direct overseas shopping gives 30 percent savings: survey

Consumers who buy products directly from overseas sellers found prices to be about 30 percent lower than when buying from Korean sellers, according to data from a survey by the Korea Consumer Agency.

The KCA survey asked 1,000 consumers who had bought products directly from overseas sellers in the past year.

Four-fifths of respondents said they used direct shopping because of lower prices. According to the survey, the highest discounts achieved through direct shopping reached 36.5 percent for children‘s products, and 34.2 percent for health supplements.

On average, the respondents used direct shopping 6 times a year, spending about 270,000 won ($240) per transaction. The most popular overseas shopping malls among direct shoppers were Drugstore, Rakuten, and Shopbop.