[Monitor] Online shopping surges amid pandemic

South Korea’s online shopping transactions have surged in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak.

According to data released by Statistics Korea, online shopping transactions totaled 12.72 trillion won ($10.60 billion) in May, up 13.1 percent from a year earlier. The figure is the second-largest after 12.85 trillion won in November last year.

Among the online transactions, mobile shopping transactions stood at 8.69 trillion won, up 21 percent year-on-year. Mobile shopping accounted for 68.3 percent of total online shopping transactions, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)