According to the findings of the new report by Hamburg-based secondary market research company yStats.com, online retail sales in South Korea continue to maintain strong growth despite the market’s advancement towards maturity. The publication “South Korea B2C E-Commerce Market 2018” also reveals that the food and beverage category is among the largest and the fastest growing among the online retail sectors.
South Korea’s B2C E-Commerce market is the third largest in Asia and one of the most advanced in this region and worldwide. More than one-fifth of overall retail sales in South Korea was online in 2017, with a projection of further increase through 2021. The yStats.com report reveals that mobile shopping is one of the drivers of this growth. The vast majority of online shoppers in South Korea make purchases via smartphones, making M-Commerce the leading mode of online retail with more than one-half of overall digital sales.
In the food and beverage segment, close to three-quarters of E-Commerce sales were on mobile in 2017. The same category was also one of the leaders of the online growth rate, according to statistics cited in the yStats.com report. In terms of the E-Commerce revenue size, food and beverage ranked fourth behind travel, clothes and household goods.
Another finding of the yStats.com report is the strong preference of online shoppers in South Korea for credit card payment. Mobile payment services such as Samsung Pay, Naver Pay and Kakao Pay are also gaining popularity, collectively ranking as the fourth most used payment method for digital purchases.
