S . Korea ' s online sales gain further presence in Feb . SEJONG , April 5 ( Yonhap ) -- South Korea ' s online sales continued growing to reach nearly 20 percent of the country ' s total retail purchases in February , government data showed Wednesday . Total online transactions reached 5 . 86 trillion won ( US $ 5 . 2 billion ) in February , up 22 . 9 percent from 4 . 77 trillion won tallied a year earlier , according to data by Statistics Korea . It accounted for a record 19 . 4 percent of the total retail sales tallied at 30 . 1 trillion won in the same month . The comparable figure was 7 . 8 percent in February 2010 . Purchases made through smartphones , tablets and other mobile gadgets soared 37 . 8 percent on - year to 3 . 4 trillion won , accounting for 58 percent of overall online sales in February , the data showed . Online sales of cosmetics surged 47 . 2 percent on - year to 550 . 4 billion won , and those of electronics jumped 25 . 7 percent to 610 . 5 billion won in February . Online bookings for travel and movie tickets gained 12 percent to 964 . 7 billion , while 607 . 8 billion won in foodstuffs were purchased online in February , up 24 . 2 percent from a year earlier . brk @ yna . co . kr ( END )