June Online Retail Sales in South Korea Spikes Due to MERS
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) crisis in South Korea might have been bad news for the past two months. It has greatly affected local businesses and, in turn, the economy. But new data has shown that it wasn't that bad during the period. Online retail sales in June have increased by 26% compared to the same period last year, while mobile phone shopping has spiked by almost 80%. With the viral disease preventing consumers from going to bricks-and-mortar shops, as well as public places and other commercial establishments, the only place to purchase their needs is online.
Local department stores haven't been raking in much income, with sales dropping at 12.4%. The sales of big supermarkets, on one hand, are down by 9.5%. Overall, the country's retail sales are around 29.35 trillion won, falling by 0.6%.
Shin Gwang-hyeon of Statistics Korea comments, "We assume that MERS had an impact on online sales". According to report findings, the total earnings of online shopping malls have reached 4.4 trillion won ($3.7 billion). This accounts for 15% of the nation's retail sales in June - the highest figure since the agency has begun to provide such data in 2010.
From these earnings, purchases done on mobile phones account for 1.97 trillion won, up by 79.8% from the previous year. It makes up a big percentage of online retail sales at 44.6%, which is also the highest.
"As applications for shopping develop, users are increasingly shopping on their mobile phones", Shin says.
Among the biggest on-year online purchases have been basic commodities. The sales of seafood, meat and agricultural products have increased by 55.5%. The sales of food and drinks, on the other hand, are up by 54.4%. The sales of children's products have increased by 39.3%.
