K-beauty booms with highest number of overseas online purchases

The number of online purchases from overseas on South Korean shopping websites recorded a new high of 18.41 million from January through September, exceeding the figure for last year, which had so far been the highest. 　

Rep. Park Hong-geun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea on Sunday released data provided by the Korea Customs Service showing that the number of direct purchases by overseas online users on South Korean websites between January and September was around 18.49 million, up from 13.19 million for the whole last year. Compared to 5.85 million four years ago in 2016, it rose more than three times. The total volume of transactions increased from 269 million to 800 million dollars over the same period. 　

South Korean cosmetics and fragrances became the best seller for five consecutive years among the shopping items directly bought by overseas online consumers between January and September. A growing popularity of South Korean cosmetics, which leads the K-beauty Wave across the globe, seem to be the main driving force in the direct purchasing market. Japan recorded the largest figure with 7.7 million transactions done, taking up 41.8 percent, followed by China (32.6%) and the United States (6.7%).


Ae-Jin Ju jaj@donga.com