Seoul: South Korean retailers saw their sales gain more than 9 percent from a year earlier in March on robust online demand for food and daily necessities, data showed Tuesday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the combined revenue of major retail companies rose 9.2 percent from a year ago, based on data compiled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The ministry attributed the increase primarily to strong demand for e-commerce deliveries in the food and daily shopping sectors and other services.

Sales from the online sector increased by 19 percent on-year, with revenue from the food sector rising 19.4 percent and revenue from the daily necessities sector expanding 7.5 percent. Additionally, sales from online services, such as food delivery and e-coupons, spiked 78.3 percent.

Conversely, offline platforms saw their revenue decrease by 0.2 percent on-year in March, impacted by weak consumer sentiment. Specifically, supermarket sales went down 0.2 percent, and sales from department stores dropped 2.1 percent.