Combined sales by South Korea's retail giants are estimated to have declined more than 2 trillion won (US$1.75 billion) on-year in the first nine months of this year on the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, a poll showed on 19 October.

Industry leader Lotte Shopping and its rivals Shinsegae and Hyundai Department Store are projected to have posted a combined 17.3 trillion won (US$15.2 billion) in sales in the January-September period, down 2.2 trillion (US$1.93 billion) won from the previous year, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap News Agency.

Local retailers have been hit hard by the virus outbreak as people refrain from visiting offline stores and instead resort to online shopping to avoid infection risks. In particular, the retail giants' duty-free segment has been battered by the pandemic as the number of customers sharply fell amid disrupted air travel.

Retail giants' sales dip over 2tr won this year amid pandemic: poll