How do people in South Korea pay online?
Koreans shop online on their phones. The Ministry of Data and Statistics (KOSTAT) put online shopping at KRW 272.0 trillion in 2025, up 4.9%, and mobile shopping at KRW 211.1 trillion, about 78% of the total. Korean shoppers also bought KRW 8.5 trillion directly from overseas sellers, up 5.2%, with purchases from China and Japan rising while those from the United States fell.
Cards are the base of most payments. The Bank of Korea reported that payment cards averaged KRW 3.596 trillion a day in 2025, of which credit cards made up KRW 2.859 trillion and debit cards KRW 725 billion. Payments without a physical card, through phones and online, grew 7.3% to KRW 1.7 trillion a day. Online payment gateways handled 33.64 million transactions a day, and card payments made up about 75% of their value.
Simple payment wallets are close behind. These services store card or account details and let the shopper confirm with a password or fingerprint. They averaged 35.57 million payments worth KRW 1.11 trillion a day in 2025, up 14.6% in value. Electronic financial companies such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay held 54.9% of that value, phone makers 23.7% and banks 21.5%. Apple Pay is available in South Korea; Google Pay is not on Google’s list of supported countries.
What rules shape online payments in South Korea?
Shoppers have seven days to withdraw. Under Article 17 of the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, a consumer can cancel an online purchase within seven days of receiving the contract details, or of delivery if the goods arrive later. The parties can agree a longer period. Under Article 18, the seller must refund within three business days of the goods being returned, and pays delay interest if it is late.
VAT is 10%. A foreign company without a place of business in Korea that supplies electronic services, such as games, software, advertising or cloud services, to Korean consumers is treated as supplying them in Korea. It registers for VAT through the simplified registration on the National Tax Service website and files and pays under the simplified rules.
Personal data falls under the Personal Information Protection Act. Guidelines published by the Personal Information Protection Commission in April 2024 say the act can apply to foreign companies that offer goods or services to people in Korea, judged by factors such as language, currency and web domain. Foreign companies must also follow the act’s procedures for transferring personal data out of Korea.
How would Omno route payments in South Korea?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In South Korea:
- Card pay-ins would follow rules by BIN, amount and currency, with cascading: if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Simple payment wallets such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay would be shown in the hosted checkout through providers that support them, with the order pending until the wallet confirms.
- Apple Pay would be offered for shoppers with a saved card and routed like other card payments.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for cards and wallets together. Cards carry the largest value, but simple payment wallets such as Naver Pay and Kakao Pay grew three times as fast in 2025.
Plan for mobile. About three quarters of online shopping happens on phones, so the hosted checkout and wallet hand-offs should work well on a small screen.
Plan for seven-day withdrawals. Refunds are due within three business days of the goods coming back, so returns need a quick refund path.
Plan for VAT on digital services. If you sell electronic services to Korean consumers from abroad, register through the National Tax Service’s simplified registration.