South Korea’s online shopping reached a historic monthly high in March, of which more than half were paid via mobile devices, government data showed Thursday.

According to data released by Statistics Korea, online transactions in March jumped 21.3 percent to 6.3 trillion won ($5.6 billion) from the same period last year. The online purchases that shrank during the first two months this year rebounded in March. Against a month ago period, online shopping increased 7.8 percent.

Transactions through mobile devices such as smartphones accounted for 59 percent of online purchases, up 37.6 percent on year to 3.7 trillion won worth. The value climbed up 8.4 percent compared to the previous month.

Children and baby products took up the lion’s share in mobile shopping with 74.8 percent, followed by shoes (73.2 percent), food and beverages (72.9 percent) and bags (71.0 percent).

In the January-March period, online transaction soared 19.4 percent on year to 18.2 trillion won and mobile transactions took up 10.7 trillion won.

Online sales to offshore residents in the first quarter surged 50.9 percent to 771.6 billion won from the same period last year while offshore online purchases by Koreans rose 20.5 percent to 537.7 billion won. Koreans made online purchases worth 310.9 billion won at the United States-based retailers, spending 198.4 billion won on clothes and fashion items at international online shops.

By Kim Se-woong

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]