Online retail continues rapid growth

A screengrab of the mobile application for Coupang, one of the leading e-commerce firms operating in South Korea. (Coupang)

South Korea's consumer market increased by 33.3 percent from 2014 to 2023, with the annual growth in non-store retailing such as online markets outstripping that of large stores by tenfold.

The consumer market for the country was 509.5 trillion won ($380.4 billion) in 2023, up from 382.3 trillion won in 2014, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's analysis based on Statistic Korea data showed Wednesday.

The report looked at the total growth in the time period over various sectors -- non-store retailing, convenience stores, duty-free shops, department stores, supermarkets, superstores, and "specialized retail stores," which refer to stores that only sell specific type of products or brand.

On average, each industry marked a 3.2 percent growth, with the non-store retailing and convenience stores each recording 12.6 percent and 10.4 percent. The lowest growths were observed in the superstores (1.2 percent) and specialized retail stores, which was the only industry to shrink in size with -0.4 percent growth.

Non-store retail refers to those without physical stores, such as online stores and TV home shopping, while superstores refer to the largest type of retail stores -- defined by law as having premises of at least 3,000 square-meters in size.

The report showed that an increasing number of consumers were turning toward online shopping. The recent social distancing enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic also appears to have contributed to the trend.

Online shopping in particular has shown significant growth in the past few years. In 2017, online shopping accounted for 17.3 percent of the sales in the consumer market -- in terms of money spent -- but the figure rose every year to mark 31.9 percent in 2023.

An increasing number of people are shopping their daily groceries online, buoyed by the boosted credibility of online food shopping and the early morning delivery service adopted by most major delivery applications here. Online food shopping accounted for 7.1 percent of all online sales in 2017, but the figure more than doubled to 18.5 percent in 2023.

As of 2023, 34.2 percent of sales made online were of furniture, followed by electronic products (33 percent), books and writing supplies (31.5 percent), shoes and bags (30.6 percent), cosmetics (25.3 percent) and clothes (23.8 percent).

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)