According to data released by Statistics Korea, South Korea's online shopping transaction value in May 2026 reached 25.13 trillion won, up 10.3% (2.331 trillion won) from the same month last year, recording double-digit growth. Compared to the previous month, it also rose 4.4%, continuing a solid upward trend.

Food and Cosmetics Drive Transaction Expansion By major product category, cosmetics recorded the highest growth rate at 36.6% year-on-year, while food and beverages (14.0%) and food services (10.2%) also increased, supporting the overall expansion of transactions.

Meanwhile, travel and transportation service transaction value fell 3.4% compared to the same period last year, showing a contrasting trend to other major categories.

In terms of transaction value share, food services accounted for the highest at 15.4% (3.8396 trillion won), followed by food and beverages at 14.2% (3.5532 trillion won) and travel and transportation services at 11.0% (2.7593 trillion won).

Specialist Malls Show Notable Growth... Higher Increase Than General Malls By product range, general mall transaction value stood at 13.3802 trillion won, up 7.8% year-on-year. Specialist malls recorded 11.6328 trillion won, an increase of 13.3%, showing a steeper growth trend than general malls.

By operational type, online-only mall transaction value reached 19.3079 trillion won (up 10.1%), while online and offline parallel malls recorded 5.7051 trillion won (up 11.1%).

Mobile Shopping Transaction Value in the 19 Trillion Won Range... Share at 77.1% Mobile shopping transaction value amounted to 19.289 trillion won, up 9.7% (1.7007 trillion won) from the same month last year, and also expanded 5.0% compared to the previous month. However, the share of mobile in total online shopping stood at 77.1%, down 0.5 percentage points from the same month last year (77.6%).

By mobile shopping product category, transactions increased for cosmetics (15.9%), food and beverages (11.9%), and food services (10.2%), while bags decreased by 3.8%. Compared to the previous month, home appliances and electronics rose 19.6% and food services increased 10.7%, while clothing declined 2.7%.

The share of mobile transactions was highest in food services at 19.7%, followed by food and beverages (14.5%) and travel and transportation services (10.6%). By category, mobile usage rates were highest in food services at 99.0%, e-coupon services at 92.3%, and children and infant products at 84.7%.

[This article was written with AI assistance. AI was utilized in the writing process, and the final content was compiled based on publicly available statistical data.]