Seoul: Online shopping sales in South Korea increased 7.3 percent from a year earlier in July, mainly driven by rising demand for food products and relevant services, as well as travel services, data showed Monday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the value of online shopping transactions stood at 21.34 trillion won (US$15.34 billion) in July, up 1.57 trillion won from a year earlier, based on data from Statistics Korea. This growth was primarily attributed to a sharp increase in demand for food services, which saw a rise of 12.6 percent on-year, reaching 3.56 trillion won.

Online sales of food and beverages also experienced significant growth, surging 14 percent on-year to 3.21 trillion won. Meanwhile, sales of travel and transportation services increased by 12.8 percent on-year, amounting to 2.94 trillion won.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices rose 10 percent to 18.16 trillion won. Mobile gadget-based shopping accounted for 78.8 percent of the total online sales in July, reflecting an increase of 1.9 percentage points from the previous year, the data indicated.