Food and groceries up 9.8%, travel up 8.7%; clothing down 4.4%

Mobile transactions reach 18.9 trillion won, accounting for 78.1% of total

The photo is unrelated to the article. [Yonhap]
The photo is unrelated to the article. [Yonhap]

Online food service transactions — including delivery orders — approached 4 trillion won ($2.95 billion) in August.

Growth in food, travel and transportation services pushed total online shopping transactions up 7.3 percent from a year earlier to 24 trillion won, while clothing and footwear sales declined.

According to the Ministry of Statistics' "Online Shopping Trends for August 2026," released Thursday, total online shopping transactions reached 24.21 trillion won, up 1.64 trillion won, or 7.3 percent, from the same month last year. Compared with the previous month, transactions fell 895.6 billion won, or 3.6 percent.

[Provided by the Ministry of Statistics]
[Provided by the Ministry of Statistics]

Food and travel-related services led overall growth. Grocery and food product transactions reached 3.54 trillion won, up 316.8 billion won, or 9.8 percent, from the same month a year earlier. Food service transactions — primarily delivery — rose 281.3 billion won, or 7.6 percent, to 3.97 trillion won, while travel and transportation services climbed 262.8 billion won, or 8.7 percent, to 3.28 trillion won.

Food services accounted for 16.4 percent of total online shopping transactions, the largest share of any product category. Groceries and food products followed at 14.6 percent, with travel and transportation services at 13.5 percent. Together, these three categories made up 44.5 percent of all transactions.

Transactions in agricultural, livestock and fishery products also rose 15.4 percent to 1.35 trillion won. Combined food transactions — groceries and agricultural products — totaled 4.89 trillion won, up 11.3 percent.

Telecommunications devices surged 44.9 percent to 788.2 billion won, and automotive products climbed 12.7 percent to 884.1 billion won. Household goods rose 5.6 percent to 1.79 trillion won, while cosmetics gained 3.7 percent to 1.19 trillion won.

Clothing transactions, by contrast, fell 61.1 billion won, or 4.4 percent, from a year earlier to 1.33 trillion won. Footwear dropped 1.9 percent to 249.6 billion won, and sports and leisure goods declined 2.9 percent to 437.1 billion won.

Compared with the previous month, food service transactions rose 1.9 percent and travel and transportation services gained 2.2 percent, while home appliances and electronics fell 22.2 percent and clothing dropped 19.3 percent.

Mobile shopping transactions reached 18.9 trillion won, up 1.03 trillion won, or 5.8 percent, from the same month last year. Mobile's share of total online shopping stood at 78.1 percent, down 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier.

Among product categories, food services recorded the highest mobile transaction share at 99.1 percent, followed by e-coupon services at 92.3 percent and children's and infant products at 84.4 percent — meaning food service orders were placed almost entirely through mobile devices.

By platform type, general shopping malls carrying a wide range of products posted transactions of 12.87 trillion won, up 7.4 percent from a year earlier. Specialty malls focused on specific product categories recorded 11.35 trillion won, up 7.1 percent.

By operating format, online-only mall transactions rose 6.9 percent to 18.76 trillion won, while platforms operating both online and offline grew 8.6 percent to 5.45 trillion won.

Excluding travel and food services, product transactions through online shopping reached 15.91 trillion won, accounting for 29.2 percent of total retail sales — up 1.2 percentage points from the same month last year.


fact0514@heraldcorp.com