South Korea

Payment methods in South Korea

E-commerce in South Korea has grown a lot in the past few years and had a revenue of 45 billion USD in 2017. A strong and steady 11% growth is expected until 2022. Growth in the M-commerce market is expected in the coming years as well, while purchases through desktops are expected to drop. South Koreans spent 876$ US per capita online in 2017, compared to 14,197$ US at brick-and-mortar locations.

Visa, MasterCard and American Express

Credit cards are the most common payment method, taking up 65% of the market in 2017, followed by e-wallet at 10%. Mobile wallets were also used to pay for 3% of POS transactions last year. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are the most widely used, especially in overseas business. Other popular credit cards include the local payment card brands BC Lord, Lotte Card and T-Money. Other payment methods are expected to grow in popularity, leaving cards to dwindle a little in the next few years. This includes, among other things, cashless payments such as wire transfer, electronic direct debits and online bank transfers.

Cross-border activities of South Korea

South Korea is among the top 10 import and export countries worldwide. Retailers have agreements with manufacturers that allow them to charge a premium for domestic and foreign products. As a result, online consumers pay up to 9 times more for local products than for overseas products.

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