Korean Online Shops Make Big Bucks Overseas

Published on 2016/05/08 | Source

The overseas sales of Korean online shopping malls in the first quarter surpassed the amount of money Korean consumers spent on foreign online retailers for the first time.

According to Statistics Korea on Monday, Korean online shopping malls earned W478.7 billion from overseas revenues, while Koreans spent only W446.3 billion buying products online from abroad (US$1=W1,158).

Korean online retailers' overseas revenues surged a whopping 84.5 percent compared to the same quarter of 2015. But the money Koreans spent at foreign online retailers rose only 5.7 percent.

The main reason is the rising number of Chinese customers who buy Korean products online. Chinese customers accounted for 75.9 percent of Korean online retailers' overseas revenues or W363.4 billion.

Americans came second with W34.2 billion, followed by Japanese with W25.4 billion.

Cosmetics accounted for 66.1 percent of total sales or W316.3 billion.