Women in their 30s are the biggest users of mobile devices to shop online in Korea, a survey showed Tuesday.

According to the online survey by Nielsen Korea, shoppers aged between 30 and 39 showed the highest rate of purchase on smartphones and tablets at 32 percent, followed by those in their 40s and 20s at 29 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

It also found that women are more likely to shop on mobile platforms compared to men, with 62 percent of women and 38 percent of men saying they made a purchase online using mobile devices.

“As a working mother I don’t have much time and energy to shop,” said Jin Mi-sun, a 34-year-old office worker.

“I prefer to browse online shops and e-commerce apps with my smartphone to get food and baby products. It’s cheap and convenient,” she said.

The most popular category purchased online was clothing at 48 percent, followed by baby products, stationary and books at 46 percent. More than 40 percent of respondents said they have bought electrical goods and food from online retailers.

“Food and daily necessities, which were mostly purchased at offline stores, are now showing increasing online purchase rates,” said Shin Eun-hee, Nielsen Korea’s CEO.

Of those surveyed, however, 9 percent of respondents said they use only mobile devices to visit e-retail sites, while 61 percent use both their desktop and mobile. A total of 30 percent of consumers, mainly those in their 40s and 50s, said they visit retail websites via desktops only.

The survey was conducted with 949 Korean consumers who have purchased good or services through online platforms in the past three months.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)