Online shopping sales increase 10% to hit record high in April on EV orders

Online shopping sales in Korea jumped 10 percent from a year earlier in April to hit a record high, driven by orders for Tesla EVs through its website, data showed on Monday.

The value of online shopping totaled 24.1 trillion won ($16 billion) for the cited month, up 2.1 trillion won from the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

It marked the highest figure for any April since the government started compiling the data in 2017.

Spending on cars and automotive products more than doubled to 1.04 trillion won, jumping 154.8 percent on year due to strong sales of Tesla EVs.

Sales of food products, including agricultural and fishery goods, rose 8.9 percent to 4.5 trillion won, and those of fashion items gained 8.3 percent to 5.4 trillion won.

Sales of food delivery services climbed 7.8 percent to 3.4 trillion won, the data showed.

The Data Ministry noted the cultural and leisure sector saw sales fall 6.3 percent to 269.5 billion won due to a base effect following major K-pop concerts that took place last year.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier to 18.4 trillion won. They accounted for 76.4 percent of total sales, down 1 percentage point from the previous year.

Yonhap