The Japan Direct Marketing Association (JADMA) said that online sales and catalog shopping in Japan have topped 10 trillion yen ($90 billion) in the fiscal year of 2020, for the first time partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, local media reported on Wednesday.

According to the JADMA, the total sales of 820 direct sales establishments in the year through March 2021 increased 20.1 per cent on the year to about $97 billion, reports Xinhua news agency.

Transactions through major online shopping websites such as Amazon and Rakuten remained robust.

People also utilised the Internet or telephone orders to buy food, home appliances and furniture as they refrained from going out or working from home.

The JADMA said this is the first time that the sales have exceeded the 10 trillion yen mark since fiscal 1982, in which it started keeping the records.

The figure is equivalent to the joint sales of seven leading convenience store chains in Japan last year.

The JADMA also attributes the record sales to a rise in the number of customers and the entry of new service providers.