Consumers' purchase in the cyberspace reached 12.7 trillion won (10.6 billion U.S. dollars) in May, up 13.1 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.
The online shopping growth slowed from 24.5 percent in February to 12.1 percent in March and 13.0 percent in April each amid an economic fallout from the pandemic, but it kept growing in double figures as people preferred shopping in the cyberspace.
Online purchase of food and beverage jumped 33.1 percent in May from a year earlier, after surging 43.1 percent in April.
People remained in favor of cooking at home with food ingredients delivered through online orders, but the eating-out increased last month as the government offered relief grants to all households that can be spent only on offline retailers to boost revenue of the retail sector.
The use of online food delivery services soared 77.5 percent in May after going up 83.7 percent in the prior month.
The online shopping for culture and leisure services tumbled 72.1 percent in the month, and the figure for travel and public transport services dived 61.6 percent.
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