Online shopping in South Korea reached a fresh record high in October on a nationwide discount event, a government report showed Friday.

Total online transactions reached a record 5.6 trillion won ($4.8 billion) in October, up 17.3 percent from 4.8 trillion won a year earlier, according to the report compiled by Statistics Korea.

Purchases made through smartphones, tablets and other mobile gadgets also soared 37.4 percent on-year to a record 3.2 trillion won to account for 56.1 percent of all online sales in the month, up from the 54.7 percent share the previous month.

In October, the Korea Sale Festa, designed to tie up the retail industry with the tourism and cultural sectors in line with the major Chinese holiday season, encouraged people to go shopping online and offline.

During the one-month period, some 200 retailers and Internet markets offered discounts and promotions to attract local and foreign shoppers.

Demand for clothes jumped 29.5 percent on-year to 726.8 billion won and online sales of cosmetics surged 42.1 percent to 465.1 billion won, while online food delivery vaulted 24.8 percent to 521.4 billion won.

According to separate data, the combined sales of department stores, large outlets and Internet shops increased 8.4 percent on-year in October, with those of offline stores gaining 6.3 percent and those of online retailers jumping 13.2 percent. (Yonhap)