The domestic companies’ reverse direct purchase, where they sell products overseas, continues to rise. Overseas direct purchase amounts also increased by more than 5%, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of growth.
According to the ‘Online Shopping Trends’ report by Statistics Korea released on the 1st, the reverse direct purchase amount in the second quarter of this year reached 738.8 billion KRW, a 7.5% increase from last year. After a slight decrease to 644 billion KRW in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, it continued to grow for three consecutive quarters, recording 700.5 billion KRW in the fourth quarter of the same year and 733.3 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year.
Regionally, China recorded the highest amount at 347.9 billion KRW, followed by Japan (176.8 billion KRW) and the USA (138.2 billion KRW). Compared to a year ago, there was an increase in China (11.0%), Japan (23.1%), and the European Union (10.1%), but a decrease in ASEAN (-27.1%). By product category, cosmetics (404.6 billion KRW), albums, videos, and instruments (87.4 billion KRW), clothing, and fashion-related products (84.4 billion KRW) were popular. Cosmetics (6.7%), food and beverages (49.8%), albums, videos, and instruments (6.9%) increased, while clothing and fashion-related products (-7.6%) decreased.
The growing influence of K-content seems to be driving the demand for K-beauty, K-food, and K-pop products.
The overseas direct purchase amount in the second quarter increased by 5.6% to 2.176 trillion KRW, marking the 10th consecutive quarter of growth since the first quarter of 2023.
Regionally, China recorded the highest amount at 1.466 trillion KRW, followed by the USA (358 billion KRW) and Japan (146.1 billion KRW). Compared to the same period last year, there was an increase in China (16.0%), Japan (6.1%), and ASEAN (38.0%), but a decline in the USA (-17.9%).
By product category, clothing and fashion-related products (964.5 billion KRW), food and beverages (396.2 billion KRW), and household and automotive goods (213.0 billion KRW) were most popular.
The online shopping transaction amount in the second quarter increased by 1.7% from last year to 66.07 trillion KRW. Among these, mobile transactions increased by 4.1% from a year ago, reaching 51.2458 trillion KRW. The increase was led by food services (13.9%), food and beverages (8.6%), and agricultural, livestock, and fishery products (12.0%). Statistics Korea attributes the increase to heightened competition among delivery platforms and the demand for food delivery and online grocery shopping for fresh produce.
On the other hand, e-coupon services dropped sharply by 49.5%, attributed to last year’s ‘Tmon and Wemakeprice non-settlement incident.’
The online shopping transaction amount for June stood at 21.8977 trillion KRW, a 1.8% increase from a year ago. This is the highest amount recorded for June since related statistics began being compiled in 2017. Mobile shopping accounted for 17.03 trillion KRW, a 4.6% increase from last year.