Market leaders
In 2021, the leading online shopping categories based on sales were food and beverages, as well as home appliances. Due to more time spent at home and travel restrictions, online travel arrangement and reservation services expenses had decreased heavily, compared to the previous years. Among the items bought online the most within the previous year, clothing, footwear, sporting goods, and accessories took the first place by a large margin.As of May 2022, the most popular online shopping property was coupang.com, which is especially known for its fast next-day delivery service. Coupang managed to overtake the long-time leading online marketplace G-market which is owned by eBay.
Mobile shopping
Mobile retail e-commerce sales are also particularly strong in South Korea. The share of mobile transaction value accounted for a large percentage of total online transaction value. Mobile shopping has become a popular way to pass time. When asked about situations in which mobile shoppers use mobile shopping apps in 2021, over 40 percent of respondents stated that they used them when they are bored. The same survey found that around 37.2 percent of mobile shoppers had around four to six mobile shopping apps installed on their smartphone.COVID-19
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of online shopping has increased around the world. Concerns about safety led many South Koreans to an increased use of online shopping services. A survey found that a majority of respondents reported that they increased their online shopping compared to their shopping behavior before the pandemic. Leading products increasingly bought online during the pandemic were food and groceries.
