Online shopping in South Korea rose 8.7 percent on-year in May on the stronger demand for travel services amid the eased COVID-19 restrictions, data showed Monday.

The value of online shopping transactions amounted to 19.24 trillion won (US$14.6 billion) last month, compared with 17.7 trillion won tallied a year earlier, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The growth was mostly led by the travel and transportation services, which shot up 40.3 percent on-year to hit 2.12 trillion won as more people enjoyed traveling amid lifted virus-related restrictions.

Online sales of food and beverages advanced 13.9 percent to hit 2.49 trillion won as well, and those of e-coupons, which refer to online gift cards with barcodes, gained 36.5 percent to 834.2 billion won.

The demand for automobile and auto parts online fell 20.6 percent over the period, with that of computers and related accessories decreasing 3.9 percent, the data also showed.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rose 8.4 percent on-year to 14.27 trillion won. They accounted for 74.2 percent of the total online shopping, down 0.2 percentage point on-year, it added.

Source: Yonhap News Agency