S.Korea's online shopping hits record high in Q3

South Korea's online shopping hit a record high in the third quarter as people preferred shopping in the cyberspace amid the continued COVID-19 resurgence, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

Shopping in online stores reached a fresh quarterly high of 48.23 trillion won (40.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the July-September quarter, up 19.6 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

It was the largest since data began to be compiled in 2001 as the COVID-19 resurgence discouraged people from shopping in offline stores.

Mobile shopping through smartphones advanced 26.9 percent over the year to 34.96 trillion won (29.6 billion dollars) in the third quarter, accounting for 72.5 percent of the total online shopping.

In September alone, the online shopping reached a new monthly high of 16.22 trillion won (13.7 billion dollars), up 17 percent from a year earlier.

Online demand for travel and transport services surged 40 percent in September from a year earlier, and demand for online food services jumped 36.8 percent.

Purchase of electronic and communications devices in the cyberspace spiked 25.8 percent in the month, and online demand for food and beverage expanded 9.8 percent.