Seoul: Online shopping sales in South Korea increased by 1.8 percent in June compared to the previous year, primarily due to a growing demand for food products and related services, data revealed on Friday. The total value of online shopping transactions reached 21.89 trillion won (US$15.64 billion), marking a rise of 379 billion won from the same period last year.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the surge in online shopping was predominantly fueled by a significant rise in demand for food services, which experienced a 12.9 percent increase from the previous year, amounting to 3.43 trillion won. Additionally, online sales of food and beverages saw an 11 percent year-on-year increase, reaching 3.18 trillion won.

Conversely, the data indicated a sharp decline in e-coupon service transactions, which plummeted by 52.2 percent to 458.2 billion won. Meanwhile, purchases made through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets rose by 4.6 percent on-year, totaling 17.33 trillion won. Mobile gadget-based shopping accounted for 77.8 percent of the overall online sales in June, an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous year.