Explosive Growth in Contactless Transactions Due to Prolonged COVID-19
Mobile Share Exceeds 72% ... 34% Increase in One Year
[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As COVID-19 prolongs, orders for food services via mobile and the use of e-coupons have surged, pushing this year's online shopping transaction volume close to 190 trillion won.
According to Statistics Korea on the 21st, domestic online shopping transaction volume in July reached 16.1996 trillion won, a 24.9% (3.2328 trillion won) increase compared to the same period last year. This is the highest amount since related statistics began in 2001, surpassing the 16.1059 trillion won recorded in May.
The online shopping market, which has shown an increasing trend every year, has grown explosively as the 'contactless' consumption trend spread due to strengthened social distancing measures amid the COVID-19 outbreak last year.
Until the first half of last year, the monthly online shopping transaction volume was around 12 trillion won, but it exceeded 13 trillion won in August, 15 trillion won in November, and surpassed 16 trillion won in May this year. The cumulative transaction volume until the end of July this year is 108.0784 trillion won. If the current trend continues, the online shopping market, which was 159 trillion won last year, is expected to exceed at least 185 trillion won and reach 190 trillion won by the end of the year.
Among online shopping, mobile shopping is growing rapidly. While internet shopping transaction volume, which was 44.109 trillion won in 2018, increased by 16.0% over two years to 49.2379 trillion won in 2019 and 51.1724 trillion won in 2020, mobile shopping surged by 56.4% from 69.205 trillion won to 87.3639 trillion won and then to 108.2659 trillion won.
In July, mobile shopping transaction volume was 11.7139 trillion won, a 33.8% increase compared to 8.7527 trillion won in the same month last year, and the share of mobile in total online shopping transactions rose from 67.5% in July last year to 72.3% this July.
Meanwhile, the product category with the largest share in online shopping transactions is food services. As of July, food services accounted for 14.7% (2.3778 trillion won), a 72.5% increase compared to 1.3786 trillion won in July last year.
The transaction volume of e-coupon services, which are barcode-type gift certificates, also recorded 486.4 billion won in July alone, an impressive 44.5% surge compared to last year.
The e-coupon service market, which was around 2.1085 trillion won in 2018, more than doubled to 4.2662 trillion won last year in just two years. This year, monthly transaction volumes have consistently exceeded 400 billion won, and the market is expected to surpass 5 trillion won by the end of the year.
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