Highlights: Growing popularity of online shopping boost to retail e-commerce in wired South Korea, debut of Thailand-based Avani brand in Busan, Incheon Airport set to be showcase of Korean traditional heritage
South Koreans’ love for online shopping behind retail e-commerce’s robust growth
South Korea, one of the world’s most wired countries with high mobile adoption and an internet penetration rate of almost 90% among its population, is unsurprisingly a huge e-commerce market.
Last December, total online transactions in the country reached a record high at 12.5 trillion won (US$10.5 billion), up 17.6% percent from the same period in 2018, according from Statistics Korea, which is part of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The data shows that a growing number of South Koreans are purchasing goods and services using mobile devices and computers.
Most of the online shopping in December were made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile gadgets, accounting for 8.2 trillion won or 65.6% of all online sales for that month.
The value of online shopping in South Korea for 2019 totalled 134.5 trillion won, a 18.3% increase over the previous year.
Statista, the German online portal for statistics, revealed the retail e-commerce volume in South Korea will grow to US$32.56 billion by 2021, up from US$19.12 billion in 2016. Online shopping is currently enjoying double digit growth.
The Statista report lists the most popular online shopping categories as travel arrangement and reservation services, fashion and apparel, home electronics and appliances, food and beverages, cosmetics, household goods and computer and computer-related appliances.
Among the popular shopping portals are online auction and shopping mall 11st.co.kr, online marketplaces Gmarket and auction.co.kr, and social commerce platforms Coupang and Wemakeprice.
Avani debuts in South Korea with opening of Busan hotel
Avani Hotels & Resorts, part of Thailand-based hospitality chain Minor Hotels, made its debut in South Korea with the recent opening of the Avani Central Busan Hotel.
The new 289-room property caters to both business and leisure travellers as this second-most populated city in South Korea after Seoul is also the country’s main commercial port, home to the Korea Exchange and a popular tourist destination.
This is the second Avani hotel in Busan after the 400-key Avani Busan Hotel, which was signed in 2017 and scheduled to open in 2021.
“Avani Central Busan Hotel is the first footstep for Avani into the Republic of Korea, offering an upscale new product for our business and leisure travellers to enjoy,” said Javier Pardo, vice president of operations at Avani Hotels & Resorts.
He added that Avani is also designed for the millennial-minded traveller “who is seeking to discover the insider’s guide to happening destinations.”
Avani currently operates 31 properties in Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, the Indian Ocean and Europe. It also just debuted in Cambodia, South Korea and Krabi in southern Thailand. The brand has in its pipeline a number of properties under development including in new destinations such as the Maldives and Oman.
Incheon airport to showcase Korean traditional heritage
Visitors landing at Incheon International Airport, gateway to Seoul, will soon be greeted with a series of media artworks featuring Korea’s traditional heritage.
This is made possible in an agreement signed between the Cultural Heritage Administration, the South Korean government agency in charge of preserving Korean traditional assets, and Incheon International Airport Corp., the airport’s operator, reported the Korean news agency Yonhap.
The project will see the two partners install video works before the end of the year at several spots near the arrival gates and the immigration checkpoint at Terminal 1 of the airport.
The heritage administration said it would be producing the media arts and music promoting traditional Korean culture. The project “is expected to help evoke to visitors the cultural dynamism of Korean heritage through the media works, which will combine cultural heritage content with cutting-edge technologies,” it added.
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• Featured image credit: Tevarak/Getty Images
