Korea’s Mobile shopping soars to record levels

Purchases made through mobile devices like smartphones accounted for record-high levels of all products traded online in April, government data showed.

Mobile transactions through smartphones and tablets reached 3.68 trillion won (US$3.28 billion) in April, surging 42.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by Statistics Korea. The amount was equal to 60.6 percent of all online purchases made in the cited month, which reached 6.08 trillion won, and outpaced the earlier record of 59 percent set in March.

Mobile purchases in Korea have been on a steep rise for years as a growing number of people are spending more on their smart devices. The percentage of mobile transactions within total online sales was in the 40 percent range in 2015 and went up to the 50 percent level in 2016 before rising to the 60 percent range this year.

Industry watchers said the increase is attributable to mobile shopping industry that launched aggressive marketing with ‘easy payment’.
SK Planet Co., the operator of leading e-commerce site 11st offers customized products through ‘Digital Concierge’, which is a consultation service for digital appliances in applications (apps).

The e-mart mall is equipped with a scanning function to support the mobile viewing of product information, shipping, and sending gifts, as well as the “”always-bought”” corner optimized for shopping malls.
At the same time, the monthly value of mobile transactions has also been on a roll, reaching an all-time high of 3.74 trillion won in March this year.

In April, mobile bookings for travel and movie tickets soared 32.9 percent from a year earlier to 509.6 billion won, while mobile sales and deliveries of foodstuffs shot up 68.8 percent to 547.5 billion won. Sales of clothing surged 40.1 percent to 439.8 billion won, while 300.8 billion won worth of cosmetics were sold through smartphones, up 37.2 percent.