Online sales in Korea rise in Jan.

Published : Mar 6, 2017 - 12:53 Updated : Mar 6, 2017 - 12:53

Online sales in South Korea continued an upbeat mode in January but the pace slowed down to some extent amid faltering consumer sentiment, government data showed Monday.

Total online transactions reached 6.02 trillion won ($5.22 billion) in the first month of 2017, up 14.6 percent from 5.25 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data by Statistics Korea.

Online sales app Coupang (Yonhap)

The monthly amount marked the third highest, following 6.25 trillion won set in December last year and 6.21 trillion won in November, while the on-year gain was the slowest clip since August 2015, when it marked 12.8 percent growth.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile gadgets jumped 28.4 percent on-year to 3.49 trillion won, accounting for 58 percent of overall online sales in January.

Online bookings for travel and movie tickets jumped 15.2 percent to 1.08 trillion won from a year earlier on the back of the four-day Lunar New Year's holidays.

Online sales of foodstuffs soared 34.7 percent on-year to 779.8 billion won, with those of cosmetics growing 24.6 percent to 498.4 billion won. (Yonhap)