Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea announced today that Korea’s retail industry advanced 4.4 percent year-on-year in February 2025, with offline sales declining 7.7 percent and online sales growing 16.7 percent.

MOTIE's monthly retail sales figures are based on surveys of 23 major retailers. Thirteen of them are brick-and-mortar retailers: three department store chains, three hypermarket chains, three convenience store chains, and four super supermarket (SSMs) operators. The remaining 10 are online retailers.

With this year’s Seollal holidays landing in January and the number of working days for February coming short by a day compared to last year, retail sales across all offline channels decreased. 

Hypermarkets slowed in most sales categories such as food products (down 19.7 percent), home appliances/culture (down 10.9 percent), clothing (down 23.6 percent), and home/living (down 22.5 percent). Department stores showed growth in foreign designer labels (up 4.5 percent) and household goods (up 4.3 percent), while food products (down 21.2 percent), miscellaneous goods (down 6.5 percent), and kids/sports (down 7.6 percent) shrank. Convenience stores and SSMs experienced retreating sales in both food and non-food categories.

As for the online retail industry, food products (up 14.9 percent) and service/other (up 76.3 percent) sales expanded on the backs of stronger online delivery services and robust demand for food delivery and e-coupons, whereas fashion/clothing (down 9.7 percent) and sports (down 9.8 percent) contracted. Meanwhile, back-to-school demand drove sales for home appliances/consumer electronics (up 3.6 percent) and helped snap their five-month downward streak.