SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's online shopping posted a double-digit growth in June as people refrained from outside activity such as offline shopping amid the lingering fear over the COVID-19 outbreak, statistical office data showed Wednesday.
Shopping in the cyberspace amounted to 12.67 trillion won (10.7 billion U.S. dollars) in June, up 19.5 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea. It was the fastest increase since February.
Worry remained over the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to strong demand for online food services that surged 61.5 percent in June from a year earlier.
Online purchase of food and beverage jumped 39.4 percent as people preferred cooking at home. The purchase of household items in the cyberspace advanced 48.9 percent in the month.
Amid the weakened outside activity, online demand for culture and leisure services tumbled 81.8 percent, while the travel and transport services demand in the cyberspace plunged 57.8 percent.
The mobile shopping, or shopping using smartphones, went up 22.8 percent over the year to 8.46 trillion won (7.1 billion U.S. dollars) in June. It accounted for 66.8 percent of the total online shopping. Enditem
