With foreign direct buying on the Internet seeing a rapid growth each year, the trading volume is expected to surpass $20 billion by 2020, according to a local research institute.
Hyundai Research Institute said on Sunday the trading volume of foreign direct buying has seen a 54.1 percent growth on annual average in its report titled "The prospect of foreign direct buying."
According to the report, the volume rose from $270 million in 2010 to $1.5 billion in 2014.
Kim Kwang-suk, the author of the report, stated the reason behind the surge, "With a lower price compared to the local market and payment method being more simplified, the foreign buying has been fast rising."
By gender, 70.8 percent of women had an experience of purchasing foreign goods online while 29.2 percent of men had the same experience.
By nation, with the purchase made on the U.S. market being the highest with 74.8 percent, Europe (11.1 percent) and Japan (4.7 percent), which have changes in the exchange rate are also taking up greater portions,” Kim said.
"If the foreign direct buying market expands, it can bring out positive economic implications such as improving well-being of consumers and the global competitiveness of the industry," Kim said.
"However, in a short term, it can bring down the market share of local consumer goods and impose higher management burden on manufactures."
