The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced today that Korea’s retail industry grew 11.7 percent year-on-year in the month of January 2025, with offline and online sales advancing 8.8 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively.

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.

By offline retail channel, hypermarket sales jumped 16.1 percent as Seollal holiday demand spurred sales across all categories, centering on food products (up 19.1 percent), home appliances/culture (up 7.5 percent), and home/living (up 8.2 percent).

Department store sales climbed 10.3 percent on the backs of Seollal gift purchases, led by foreign designer labels (up 17.3 percent), food products (up 24.9 percent), and kids/sports (up 9.3 percent).

Convenience store sales inched up 1.7 percent, with food products (up 2.5 percent) and nonfood products (up 0.9 percent) both increasing, whereas instant food products (down 5.0 percent) shrank for the first time since last year’s Chuseok holidays in September 2024.

SSM operators rose 4.8 percent as food products (up 5.1 percent) and nonfood products (up 1.4 percent) both grew, thanks to higher demand for home dining and kitchenware during the Seollal holidays.

Online retail sales (up 14.6 percent) enjoyed robust demand for food products (up 19.6 percent), cosmetics (up 7.7 percent), and service/other (up 73.3 percent), fueled by purchases of Seollal holiday gift and e-coupons, rental services for water purifiers and other items, as well as the expansion of online platforms’ delivery services.

Meanwhile, sales of fashion/clothing (down 12.8 percent), sports (down 11.9 percent), and home appliances/electronics (down 6.2 percent) continued to slow.