SOUTH KOREA. Sales to foreigners, mostly daigou resellers, accounted for 95.3% of total sales in the Korean duty free market last month. Total duty free sales in the Republic reached US$1.27 billion in March, up by around +20% over February, the highest monthly sales since September 2020, according to the Korea Duty Free Association (KDFA).
Sales to foreigners, dominated by resellers, reached US$1.21 billion (from just 51,282 customers).
The figures were up by more than +40% over those for March 2020, a month in which South Korea was blasted by the early impact of the pandemic – in that month sales reached US$892 million. It took until July 2020 for duty free sales to exceed US$1 billion again, aided by high average spends from foreign buyers (mostly daigou traders).
Sales to Koreans in March 2021 were just US$59.6 million, up from US$49.4 million in February and US$39.4 million in January. The sales figure was buoyed by the number of Koreans purchasing goods, mostly through a range of schemes devised by the Korean authorities to support the stricken local industry. These include so-called ‘flights to nowhere’, and the sell-off of duty free stock through online sales to Korean citizens who do not have to travel.
Only 284,356 Koreans purchased duty free in January – the second-lowest monthly tally since the pandemic began – but this figure reached 507,246 in March.
