Mobile shopping soar 42% as retail sales hit record high in Dec.

Retail sales in South Korea hit a record high in December aided by brisk demand for furniture, food and beverages, and cosmetics, a government report showed Tuesday.

Retail sales amounted to 33.19 trillion won ($27.6 billion) in December, up 2.7 percent from the 32.3 trillion won tallied the previous year, according to the report by Statistics Korea. It also marks a 2.8 percent gain from November’s 32.3 trillion won.

The December figure marked the highest monthly amount since January 2010 when the state statistical bureau started to compile related data.

Sales of furniture jumped 6.4 percent on-year to 423 billion won in December, with food and beverage sales rising 4.1 percent to 6.8 trillion won. Demand for cosmetics grew 3 percent to 1.5 trillion won over the cited period.

However, sales of home appliance goods, computers and mobile phones dropped 2.2 percent on-year to 3.2 trillion won, while sales of clothing fell 3.7 percent to 5.2 trillion won.

Department stores saw their sales fall 2.7 percent on-year in December, while large discount outlets and supermarkets basked in a 3.1 percent and 1.1 percent rise, respectively.

Convenience stores saw their sales jump 21.5 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

Online shopping sales, which have been growing swiftly in recent years, jumped 15.3 percent on-year to reach a record 5.33 trillion won in December on the back of the strong sales of food products, cosmetics and clothes.

Online shopping accounted for 16.1 percent of all retail sales in December, up from 15.3 percent the previous month.

Purchases made through mobile devices, meanwhile, soared 41.73 percent on-year to 2.65 trillion won, accounting for 49.6 percent of all online sales in the period, according to the report.

For the whole of 2015, Statistics Korea said the amount of retail sales reached 366.5 trillion won, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier.