100 view s

Online sales drive South Korea’s 4% retail growth in January

The country’s offline sales dipped by 0.5%.

South Korea’s retail sales in January increased 4% year-on-year (YoY) in January, supported by the 9.1% growth in online sales, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.

In a statement, sales at online stores were boosted by the demand for services/other, which rose 27.3%, due to overseas travel packages, Seollal holiday gift e-coupons, and other performance ticket sales.

Most categories also increased such as home appliances/culture (6.5%), food products (10.7%) and cosmetics (up 12.2%).

READ MORE: South Korean restaurants feel the pinch of surging delivery costs

Meanwhile, offline sales declined by 0.5% due to the lower number of store visits because of store closures during the Seollal Holidays and increased orders of sanitation and daily necessities online.

Convenient stores saw an 8.4% growth in sales due to the higher number of visitors during the Seollal holidays, whilst sales in hypermarket chains and department stores contracted by 3.8% and 3.7%, respectively. Super supermarket sales also dipped by 4.5%.

The monthly sales figure is based on a survey of 26 major retailers, composed of three department store chains, three hypermarket chains, three convenience store chains, four SMM operators, and the other half were online retailers.

Follow the link for more news on

Join Retail Asia community
Since you're here...

...there are many ways you can work with us to advertise your company and connect to your customers. Our team can help you dight and create an advertising campaign, in print and digital, on this website and in print magazine.

We can also organize a real life or digital event for you and find thought leader speakers as well as industry leaders, who could be your potential partners, to join the event. We also run some awards programmes which give you an opportunity to be recognized for your achievements during the year and you can join this as a participant or a sponsor.

Let us help you drive your business forward with a good partnership!

Exclusives

Swarovski cracks TikTok to scale luxury amongst Gen Zs
The Austrian glassmaker is working with influencers to connect with the Singaporean market.
Starbucks Korea opens high-tech store in Seoul
Its first reserve-only branch features AR art installations and a Mixology Bar.