South Korean shoppers set new mobile spending record

South Korean shoppers set a new record for the volume of purchases made through mobile devices during September.

Government data says mobile transactions through smartphones and tablets reached a new high of 4.04 trillion won (US$3.5 billion) in August, up 29.5 per cent from a year earlier.  Statistics Korea says the trend is being fuelled by the growing amount of time consumers are spending on their handsets.

Mobile transactions accounted for 61.9 per cent of all online purchases made during the month.

Shopping by mobile phone in South Korea has been on a steep rise for years as smart devices are widening their presence in the world’s most-wired country. They are rapidly replacing computers as a means of conducting online transactions.

Mobile bookings for travel and movie tickets surged 35.5 per cent in August from a year earlier to a record 755.8 billion won in the summer vacation season, while South Korean shoppers spent 344.8 billion won on cosmetics during the month, up 20.7 per cent.

Food delivery services increased 38.2 per cent year-on-year to 610.3 billion won last month, while 381 billion won worth of electronic goods was sold through smartphones, up 18.3 per cent from a year earlier.