SEOUL, March 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's online shopping posted a double-digit growth in January due to strong demand for face masks and hand sanitizers, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

Photo: CGTN

Shopping in the cyberspace amounted to 12.4 trillion won (10.5 billion U.S. dollars) in January, up 15.6 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

The daily online shopping averaged 502.6 billion won (423.9 million U.S. dollars) in January, up from 481.7 billion won (406.3 million U.S. dollars) in December last year.

Demand became stronger for face masks and hand sanitizers on worry about the COVID-19 outbreak.

The online sale of miscellaneous items, including face masks, surged 57.0 percent in January from a year earlier.

The sale of household items, including hand sanitizers, in the cyberspace jumped 22.2 percent in the month.

Food delivery services soared 69.3 percent in the cited month, but the online sale of clothing and computers slipped 3.5 percent and 1.5 percent each.