The National Data Agency said Monday in its “March 2026 Online Shopping Trends” report that online shopping transactions totaled 25.577 trillion won, up 13.3% from a year earlier. It was the largest monthly figure since tracking began in 2017.
Growth was driven by travel and transportation services, automobiles, and communications devices. Auto and auto-related products surged 109.9% from a year earlier, communications devices jumped 107.5%, and travel and transportation services rose 21.7%.
By category, food services accounted for the largest share of online shopping transactions at 14.2%, followed by food and beverages at 13.3% and travel and transportation services at 13.0%.
Mobile shopping transactions increased 11.6% to 19.4088 trillion won. Mobile purchases made up 75.9% of total online shopping, down 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier.
In mobile shopping, food services led with an 18.5% share, followed by food and beverages at 14.3% and travel and transportation services at 11.6%.
By product range, transactions at general online malls rose 6.7% to 13.472 trillion won, while specialized malls climbed 21.7% to 12.105 trillion won.
By operating type, online-only malls posted 19.2494 trillion won in transactions, up 9.6%, while retailers running both online and offline channels recorded 6.3276 trillion won, up 26.5%.
In the first quarter, direct overseas sales totaled 1.0599 trillion won, up 24.4%, while direct overseas purchases rose 1.2% to 1.9789 trillion won. The agency attributed the gap to a higher won-dollar exchange rate raising the burden of buying foreign products, while improving the price competitiveness of South Korean companies and boosting overseas sales.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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