SEOUL: Online shopping sales in South Korea grew 2 percent on-year in September, driven by increased demand in food delivery services and mobile devices, the statistics agency said Friday. The combined value of online shopping transactions came to 19.56 trillion won (US$14.21 billion) in September, compared with 19.18 trillion won tallied a year earlier.

According to Yonhap News Agency, spending on food and beverages surged 10.5 percent on-year to reach 3.02 trillion won, and sales for food delivery services also advanced 17.3 percent to 2.51 trillion won. Purchases of mobile devices saw an increase of 94.9 percent, reaching 738.5 billion won. Everyday items’ sales on online platforms rose 7.9 percent to 1.51 trillion won.

Conversely, online shopping for e-coupon services plunged 48.8 percent on-year to 502.7 billion won, following payment delays by TMON and WeMakePrice. The two e-commerce platforms, owned by Singapore-based company Qoo10, filed for court receivership in July after failing to make payments
to vendors and issue refunds to customers due to liquidity issues stemming from aggressive merger deals by their owner.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices climbed 7.7 percent on-year to 14.92 trillion won. Mobile-based shopping accounted for 76.3 percent of total online sales in September, up by 4.1 percentage points from a year earlier, the data showed.