Increase of 900 Billion KRW in Online Travel Product Shopping Following Eased Quarantine Guidelines

Statistics Korea, Online Shopping Trends in January 2023

Earlier this year, the transaction amount for travel and transportation services conducted online more than doubled compared to last year. This is attributed to the surge in travel demand as awareness of COVID-19 diminished, such as the removal of the indoor mask-wearing mandate.

According to Statistics Korea on the 3rd, the online shopping transaction amount in January was 17.9192 trillion KRW. This represents an increase of 1.0634 trillion KRW (6.3%) from 16.8558 trillion KRW in January of the previous year. Among online transactions, mobile transactions accounted for 13.4927 trillion KRW, making up 75.3% of the total.

By product category, the transaction amount for travel and transportation services surged by 967 billion KRW (105.4%) to 1.8845 trillion KRW during the same period, leading the growth trend. Food and beverages increased by 240.5 billion KRW (10.3%) to 2.5654 trillion KRW, marking the second-largest increase in transaction amount, followed by e-coupon services, which rose by 102 billion KRW (16.8%) from 607.8 billion KRW to 709.8 billion KRW. Even when narrowed down to mobile shopping, the growth in travel and transportation services (79.7%) and food and beverages (8.3%) was prominent.

The sector with the highest proportion of mobile shopping transactions was food services. In food services, 98.1% of online transactions were conducted via mobile. E-coupon services (84.9%) and children and infant products (82.8%) also saw active mobile transactions.

Despite the overall upward trend, some sectors experienced a decline in transaction amounts. Food services decreased by 8.3% compared to the same month last year, and compared to the previous month, clothing (-30.9%) and children and infant products (-25.0%) saw significant drops.