Online shopping sales up 10% to new record high in April on EV sales

Online shopping sales in Korea jumped 10 percent from a year earlier in April to hit a record high, driven by orders for Tesla electric vehicles through its website, data showed Monday. The value of online shopping came to 24.1 trillion won ($15.9 billion) for the cited month, up 2.1 trillion won from a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics. It marked the highest figure for any April since the government started compiling the data in 2017. Spending on cars and automotive products more than doubled to 1.04 trillion won, jumping 154.8 percent year-on-year on the back of strong sales of Tesla EVs. Sales of food products, including agricultural and fishery goods, rose 8.9 percent to 4.5 trillion won, while those of fashion items gained 8.3 percent to 5.4 trillion won. Sales of food delivery services climbed 7.8 percent from a year earlier to 3.4 trillion won, the data showed. The data ministry noted the cultural and leisure sector saw sales fall 6.3 percent to 269.5 billion won due to a base effect following major idol concerts held last year. Purchases made t

Original source: Korea Times