Key Points
- Mobile shopping dominated South Korea’s online sales, accounting for 77% of total e-commerce transactions in November 2025.
- Total online shopping reached 24.1 trillion won, showing continued growth from the same month last year.
- Consumers spent more online on food, services, and travel, while sales of home appliances and electronics declined.
Mobile shopping continued to dominate South Korea’s e-commerce landscape in November 2025, accounting for 77% of all online shopping transactions, as total online sales reached 24.16 trillion won.
Mobile shopping transactions climbed 7.9% year-on-year to 18.59 trillion won, outpacing the overall growth rate of online shopping, which rose 6.8% compared with the same month last year.
On a month-on-month basis, online shopping transactions increased 5.7%, while mobile shopping rose 4.2%, indicating sustained momentum heading into the year-end peak season.
Mobile Becomes the Default Shopping Channel
Mobile’s share of total online shopping rose by 0.9% points year-on-year, up from 76.1% in November 2024, which shows smartphones are no longer just a complementary channel but the primary gateway for digital commerce in South Korea.
Industry observers note that South Korea’s e-commerce market has effectively transitioned into a mobile-native phase, where consumer experiences and platform innovations are increasingly designed with mobile users as the default audience.
Spending Shifts Toward Essentials and Services
While overall online sales expanded, performance varied across product categories. Transactions related to food services rose 13.7% year-on-year, while food and food products increased 10.1%.
Travel and transportation services also recorded a solid 8.5% year-on-year increase, reflecting a gradual recovery in mobility-related spending. However, compared to the previous month, this category declined 6.5%, suggesting seasonal volatility following earlier travel peaks.
In contrast, online transactions for home appliances and electronic products fell 4.9% year-on-year, pointing to softer demand for big-ticket consumer electronics amid cautious household spending and longer product replacement cycles.
Month-on-month data showed a sharp rebound in clothing sales, which jumped 21.8%, likely driven by seasonal promotions and colder weather, while food and drink purchases rose 6.1%.
Specialised Platforms Outperform General Marketplaces
The data also revealed diverging growth patterns across e-commerce platforms. Specialised online shopping malls recorded 10.95 trillion won in transactions, up 11.8% year-on-year, significantly outpacing general online malls, which grew 2.9% to 13.21 trillion won.
Compared with October, transactions rose 7.2% at general malls and 3.9% at specialised malls, indicating broad-based growth ahead of year-end demand.
Hybrid Retail
By operation type, pure online malls recorded 18.53 trillion won in transactions, up 5.4% year-on-year, while hybrid online–offline retailers posted a stronger 11.6% increase, reaching 5.63 trillion won.
With mobile shopping firmly entrenched as the dominant channel, South Korea’s e-commerce market is expected to see further innovation in mobile payments, personalised commerce, and AI-driven shopping experiences.
As consumer demand continues to shift toward convenience-driven and service-oriented purchases, the November data reinforces South Korea’s role as a bellwether market for mobile commerce trends across Asia.
Shahriena Shukri is a journalist covering business and economic news in Malaysia, providing insights on market trends, corporate developments, and financial policies. More about Shahriena Shukri.
