Korea's online sales gain further presence in Feb.

Published : Apr 5, 2017 - 13:14 Updated : Apr 5, 2017 - 13:48

South Korea's online sales continued growing to reach nearly 20 percent of the country's total retail purchases in February, government data showed Wednesday.

Total online transactions reached 5.86 trillion won ($5.2 billion) in February, up 22.9 percent from 4.77 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to data by Statistics Korea.

(Yonhap)

It accounted for a record 19.4 percent of the total retail sales tallied at 30.1 trillion won in the same month. The comparable figure was 7.8 percent in February 2010.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile gadgets soared 37.8 percent on-year to 3.4 trillion won, accounting for 58 percent of overall online sales in February, the data showed.

Online sales of cosmetics surged 47.2 percent on-year to 550.4 billion won, and those of electronics jumped 25.7 percent to 610.5 billion won in February.

Online bookings for travel and movie tickets gained 12 percent to 964.7 billion, while 607.8 billion won in foodstuffs were purchased online in February, up 24.2 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)