Health foods such as vitamins and antioxidants are the most favored items purchased by South Korean online shoppers direct from overseas. [IclickArt]
Health foods and cosmetics were the most favored items purchased by South Korean online shoppers direct from overseas, government data showed.
In the first half of this year, South Korean consumers purchased some 8.15 million foreign items from online shopping malls abroad, up three percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Customs Service.
Health foods such as vitamins and antioxidants topped the list with 1.62 million purchases (20 percent), followed by cosmetics with 1.12 million (14 percent). Other food products such as coffee and powdered milk stood third with 1.09 million (13 percent).
The popularity of foreign health foods and cosmetics has increased among South Korean online shoppers while the purchase of clothing, footwear and bags has been on the decline.
By country, 5.47 million items came from the United States, accounting for 67 percent of the total. Europe was second with 1.1 million (14 percent), followed by China with 594,000 (7.0 percent).
The share of products coming directly from European online shopping malls has seen a sharp increase, reflecting a diversified pattern of consumption in South Korea.
At home, sales of South Korean online shopping malls have expanded rapidly to 53.9 trillion won (46.9 billion dollars) last year, according to data from Statistics Korea.
Tour packages and reservation services were the most popular online last year with 10 trillion won, followed by clothing with 8.5 trillion won and daily goods with 6.7 trillion won.
In 2015, online shopping sales accounted for 14.6 percent of South Korea's total retail sales estimated at 369.2 trillion won.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
