Korea has more public holidays than the US and several of them close courier networks completely. Ordering without knowing the calendar produces a specific kind of frustration: a package that sits at a store or warehouse for a week with no explanation. Here is the year in terms of dispatch delay.
The two major shutdowns
Seollal in late January or February and Chuseok in September or October each stop the courier network for four to six days with a three to five day backlog afterward. Both follow the lunar calendar and move each year. These two are the only periods where you should actively reschedule an order rather than absorb the delay.
The single-day holidays that still slow things
March 1, May 5, June 6, August 15, October 3, October 9, and Christmas are all public holidays. Each produces a one to two day dispatch delay, more when it falls adjacent to a weekend and creates a long weekend. January 1 and the Buddha's birthday holiday in May behave the same way.
The clusters that catch people out
Early May frequently stacks Children's Day, Buddha's birthday and a weekend into a four or five day break, which is the second-largest disruption of the year after the two big holidays. Early October can put National Foundation Day and Hangul Day close to Chuseok, occasionally producing a nine or ten day stretch of reduced operations.
Planning around it
The rule that works is to have goods physically at the warehouse and dispatched at least three business days before any holiday cluster, or accept the wait and dispatch three business days after it. The worst possible timing is dispatching on the last working day, when volume spikes and your box joins the back of the queue.
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Start a buy-for-me order →Frequently asked
Do Korean online stores stop taking orders on holidays?
No, ordering runs continuously. Only dispatch and customer service stop, which is why orders appear to vanish for days.
Are international carriers affected?
Their flights operate, but nothing reaches them from the Korean ground network during a shutdown. The delay is on the domestic side, not the air side.
Which month is safest for a large order?
Broadly March, June and November, which are free of major clusters. Avoid the last two weeks before either lunar holiday.