Online shopping sales up 7.3 pct in Aug. on food delivery services, leisure

SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Yonhap) -- Online shopping sales in South Korea moved up 7.3 percent in August from a year earlier led by stronger demand for food delivery services and leisure, data showed Thursday. The value of online shopping transactions came to 24.2 trillion won (US$17.8 billion) in August, up 1.64 trillion won from a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. The report showed spending on food delivery services moved up 7.6 percent to 3.97 trillion won. Spending on food products, including agricultural and fishery goods, rose 9.8 percent to 3.54 trillion won. Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 18.9 trillion won. They accounted for 78.1 percent of total sales, down 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier. This file photo taken July 8, 2026, shows a delivery driver in Seoul. (Yonhap) sam@yna.co.kr(END)