eCommerce Report: Costa Rica Market 2020

eCommerce Market Size

Relative to other countries the eCommerce market in Costa Rica is quite small with only 4183 active websites and only 580 eCommerce sites shipping products. According to recent statistics, figures show that 68% of a 5 million population have an account with a financial institution, despite only 14% acquiring a credit card. This will explain why eCommerce has not fully taken off. It appears that 27% make online purchases and/or pays bills online, likely with PayPal considering 51% of all online merchants use their services. They are by far one of the biggest payment providers in Costa Rica today. The eCommerce market is very heavily focus towards Travel, Hospitality and services.

Travel

Costa Rica is a very popular Tourist destination and was rated as one of the top 10 most popular countries to travel to according to Google. This is a popular travel spot for Americans who have a reputation for stateside travel. The percentage of Americans who have a passport is now 42% up from just 4% in 1990. Costa Rica attracts over 3.1M visitors a year. COVID-19 will have a significant impact on their economy as a result of loss of consumer confidence by Europeans and Americans to book travel.

Internet Users in Costa Rica

There were 3.76 million internet users in Costa Rica in January 2020, which is equivalent to 74% of their total population. The number of internet users in Costa Rica increased by 157 thousand (+4.4%) between 2019 and 2020. Internet penetration in Costa Rica stood at 74% in January 2020.

Interesting enough in December 2019, 63.7% of Costa Rica’s population accessed the Internet via laptops & desktops, in comparison to only 34.8% using their mobile phones in order to browse the web. This figure is quite astounding as mobile phones have become the new norm, with nearly everyone possessing them. Evidently, this is not the case in Costa Rica. However, the usage of mobile phones has increased by 2.7% from December 2018. It seems as if they are slowly on the rise.

Social Media Users in Costa Rica

There were 3.70 million social media users in Costa Rica in January 2020. The number of social media users in Costa Rica increased by 146 thousand (+4.1%) between April 2019 and January 2020. Social media penetration in Costa Rica stood at 73% in January 2020.

Facebook is considered the most popular social media site, with Facebook reporting 3.30 million people in Costa Rica can be reached through adverts. Although we recently discovered laptops & desktops are more prominent in Costa Rica, mobile phones are valued more when connecting to Facebook, as 99.1% use the mobile phone as to 0.9% using a laptop or desktop.

Mobile Connections in Costa Rica

There were 9.05 million mobile connections in Costa Rica in January 2020. The number of mobile connections in Costa Rica increased by 600 thousand (+7.1%) between January 2019 and January 2020. The number of mobile connections in Costa Rica in January 2020 was equivalent to 178% of the total population.

The use of Android devices tends to be much greater than the use of Apple devices in Costa Rica, considering 80% of the population occupy an Android device and only 19.7% of the population occupy an Apple device. Apple devices are on the decline, with figures displaying between December 2018 and December 2019, there was a fall of 6.8% Apple users.

We help companies to size their entire market opportunity and find all of the leads for their Sales teams through our analysis of the Internet. We identify where they should focus their efforts to generate the most revenue and ensure that the companies they target are the right ones. We know the eCommerce industry better than anyone else. Please get in touch if you would like to know more: hello@tami.co.uk.