In the second quarter of this year, online shopping transactions in South Korea surpassed 73 trillion won for the first time, driven by the popularity of K-beauty products such as cosmetics and clothing.
According to the National Data Agency's report on online shopping trends for June 2026, the cumulative online shopping transaction amount from April to June reached 73.6085 trillion won, marking a 10.1% increase compared to the same period last year. This growth is attributed to significant increases in transactions for automobiles and automotive supplies (72.5%), food and beverages (11.3%), and communication devices (66.1%).
Mobile shopping transactions in the second quarter totaled 56.6289 trillion won, a 9.3% increase from the same period last year, with notable growth in food and beverages (11.3%), food services (7.5%), and communication devices (56.8%).
During the same period, online direct overseas sales amounted to 1.2032 trillion won, a 38.7% increase from the second quarter of last year. In contrast, direct overseas purchases decreased by 2.7% to 2.1166 trillion won.
Regionally, the largest direct overseas sales were to China, totaling 449 billion won, followed by the United States at 309.3 billion won and Japan at 244.9 billion won.
K-culture products, particularly cosmetics, have been leading the charge in online direct overseas sales. In the second quarter, the online direct sales of cosmetics reached 745.8 billion won, followed by clothing and fashion-related items at 99.4 billion won.
China also topped the list for direct overseas purchases, with a transaction volume of 1.382 trillion won. The United States ranked second at 334.2 billion won, showing a significant gap, followed by Japan at 195.5 billion won.
The most actively traded items in direct overseas purchases were clothing and fashion-related products, with a transaction volume of 873.5 billion won, followed by food and beverages at 400.2 billion won and household and automotive supplies at 219.4 billion won.
In June, the online shopping transaction amount reached 24.6067 trillion won, a 10.7% increase from a year earlier. Mobile shopping transactions increased by 9.8% to 18.927 trillion won. However, compared to the previous month, there was a decline, with online shopping transactions down by 1.7% and mobile shopping transactions down by 2.0%. The proportion of mobile shopping transactions within total online shopping transactions was 76.9%, a decrease of 0.7 percentage points compared to the same month last year.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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