SEOUL, KOREA - The purchase by Korean consumers of foreign goods through overseas online retail websites like Amazon has increased rapidly to account for 0.2 percent of private consumption. According to the Bank of Korea in its report "Trend of Individual Overseas Purchase" published on October 16, the total volume of direct purchase was 753.8 billion won for the six-month period this year in 7,276,000 cases, up 48.5 percent from the same period last year. This is equivalent to 0.2 percent of the total private consumption of 370 trillion won for the same six months.
Direct purchases without the middlemen such as importers have increased at a fast pace for the past few years in items with large price differentials such as brand shoes, clothes, and dietary supplements. Last year's direct purchase volume was 1,135.6 billion won, 42.8 percent higher than the previous year. Accordingly, the portion in the total amount of private consumption has climbed up from 0.11 percent in 2011, 0.16 percent in 2012, and finally surpassed the 0.2-percent level last year.
The report commented, "Although the percentage is negligible right now, it is likely to rise further in coming years. Although somehow positive in terms of a rise in consumer welfare and pressure on the prices of competing goods domestically, the effects of direct purchase of foreign goods are generally negative in that it causes domestic producers to give up production and thus cut jobs."
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