South Korean online shopping sales rise 4.1% in September
Car and related product purchases posted the biggest gain, while mobile devices accounted for 76.4 percent of online sales.
South Korea's online shopping sales increased over four percent in the month of September year-on-year, Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday.
Government data released on Monday showed a 4.1 increase in online sales, with automobile, food delivery services leading the chart, according to the news agency.
The total value of online transactions reached 24.97 trillion won (US$18.7 billion) last month, an increase of 975.8 billion won over the same month a year earlier, the Ministry of Data and Statistics said.
Spending on automobiles and related products recorded the largest gain among the categories reported, jumping 30.9 percent to 1.27 trillion won.
Food delivery spending grew 4 percent to 3.78 trillion won, while purchases of cosmetic products climbed 12.2 percent to 1.29 trillion won.
Buyers using smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices spent 19.08 trillion won, a 5.4 percent rise from a year earlier.
Mobile transactions made up 76.4 percent of total online sales, one percentage point higher than a year earlier.
Online retail in South Korea has expanded steadily over the past decade, as shoppers increasingly rely on smartphones to buy goods and order meals.
Businesses and policymakers closely track the monthly figures as a gauge of household consumption in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
