Online shopping in South Korea posted a double-digit growth in April on rising demand for transactions in the cyberspace by using smartphones, a government report showed Monday.

(File photo)

Shopping in the cyberspace amounted to 8.74 trillion won (8.15 billion U.S. dollars) in April, up 22.0 percent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Korea.

Online cosmetics sales soared 38.3 percent as Chinese tourists increased purchase through online duty-free shops. The number of Chinese travelers to South Korea surged 78.6 percent from a year earlier to 283,533 in April.

Food delivery services through online order jumped 73.2 percent, while online sales of home appliances, electronic products and telecommunications devices advanced 31.3 percent.

Transactions in the cyberspace using smartphones amounted to 5.38 trillion won (5.02 billion U.S. dollars) in April, up 33.6 percent from a year ago.

It accounted for 61.6 percent of the total online sales, topping the previous high of 60.7 percent tallied in December last year.