Online shopping sales in South Korea rose 13 percent in November on-year, driven by major sales promotional events, the statistics agency said Wednesday. The value of online shopping transactions amounted to a record high of 20.84 trillion won (US$15.89 billion) in November, up from 18.44 trillion won, according to the data from Statistics Korea. It is the largest increase since August 2022, when the figure climbed 15.9 percent on-year. The growth came as the country held the annual Korea Sale FESTA -- the Korean equivalent of Black Friday -- for 20 days from Nov. 10-30, in the largest-ever scale, where more than 2,500 companies offered big bargains, an agency official said. Rising demand for travel and transportation services after the COVID-19 pandemic also led the overall growth, which surged 28.3 percent on-year to 2.01 trillion won in November. Sales of food and beverages advanced 12.9 percent to 2.57 trillion won, and those of clothing jumped 13 percent to 2.25 trillion won, an all-time high, the data showed. Transactions of vehicles and auto products soared 46.6 percent to 552.1 billion won in November, and those of cell phones and other communication devices also rose 21.4 percent. Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices rose 12.1 percent on-year to 15.25 trillion won. It was the first time ever that the amount surpassed the 15 trillion won level. They accounted for 73.1 percent of total online shopping, down 0.6 percentage point on-year, according to the agency. Source: Yonhap News Agency