Korea Racks up 1st Online Shopping Surplus

Published on 2017/02/12 | Source

For the first time, overseas shoppers are buying more from Korean online stores than Koreans are buying from foreign websites.

According to Statistics Korea, Korean sites' overseas sales surged 82 percent in 2016 from a year earlier to more than W2.25 trillion, or about US$2 billion (US$1=W1,148).

Koreans' purchases from foreign sites, meanwhile, rose by a far more modest 12.1 percent to about $1.7 billion, marking the first time Koreans have sold more than they bought in the overseas online market.

The turnaround was fueled by Chinese online shoppers, whose purchases more than doubled and accounted for more than 78 percent of the total. The shopping spree was enabled by simplified transactions for Chinese shoppers last year at Korea's major duty-free websites.