The total retail market in South Korea is barely budging, but it’s a whole other world online?and especially on mobile?according to July data.
Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) reported that as of July, total retail sales were up by just 0.5% year over year in the country. Business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce sales, however, grew more than 40 times as fast over the same period.
On mobile, growth was even more rapid, amounting to a nearly 64% increase in sales between July 2014 and July 2015.
Digital growth was fastest for agricultural products, pet items and the food and beverage sector, KOSTAT reported.
For the full year, eMarketer anticipates 11.0% growth in retail ecommerce sales in South Korea, excluding digital sales of travel products and services. Digital travel sales in the country are expected to rise by 15.0% this year.
On mobile, eMarketer predicts a 26.5% increase in spending this year.
