SEOUL (XINHUA) – South Korea’s online shopping grew in October due to strong demand for food delivery, farm goods and books, official data showed yesterday.
Shopping in cyberspace edged up 0.6 per cent over the year to KRW20.28 trillion in October, according to Statistics Korea. The online shopping kept an upward trend, but the growth slowed from 10.6 per cent in April to 5.1 per cent in July and 2.2 per cent in September.
The lower growth was attributed to overdue payments by two e-commerce platforms that filed for court receivership in July after failing to make payments to vendors and offer refunds to customers.
Online purchase of food and beverage spiked 17.5 per cent, while demand for food delivery and agricultural products soared in double digits.
Transaction of books in cyberspace surged 24 per cent, and those for travel and transport service, daily necessities, clothing and furniture added in single figures.
