Jan
Getting to Know Costa Rica’s E-Commerce Market
Latest update: January 2025
Get a fresh perspective on the e-commerce market in Costa Rica. This article presents exclusive data from our PCMI E-Commerce Data Library for Latin America, complemented by external resources carefully curated by our team. We aim to provide to-the-point data as a quick resource for payment professionals and analysts.
The following information is also available in an infographic PDF that you can conveniently download below. You might also want to check out our other country reports here.
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Current State of E-commerce in Costa Rica
Costa Rica is the leading e-commerce market in Central America, with a sales volume reaching US$6.4 billion in 2024, according to data from the PCMI E-commerce Data Library. Between 2024 and 2027, e-commerce in Costa Rica is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%, reaching US$9.3 billion.
Costa Rica’s success in online sales is largely due to its highly banked population, with 90% of adults having a bank account in the formal financial system.1 On top of that, an estimated 80% of adults—four out of five—already shop online.2
Profiling the Costa Rican Online Buyer
While this overall picture is important, focusing on the consumer behavior delivers a deeper understanding of the market drivers:
65% of online shoppers in Costa Rica earn more than approximately US$800 per month, or CR¢500,000.3
The average Costa Rican spends US$1,062 annually on e-commerce.4
41% of online consumers in Costa Rica are the primary breadwinners in their households.5
Most online shoppers in Costa Rica are between 18 and 34 years old.6
Costa Rica E-Commerce Payment Methods and Devices
According to PCMI’s E-commerce Data Library, the primary payment methods for e-commerce in Costa Rica, by share of volume, are:
- Internationally-enabled credit card — 68%
- Debit card — 16%
- Bank transfers — 10%
- Digital wallet — 3%
- Domestic-only credit card — 1%
- Other* — 1%
*Includes gift cards, pay-on-delivery, and other miscellaneous payment methods.
It is also important to track the device:
- In 2024, 74% of Costa Rica’s e-commerce volume came from purchases made on mobile devices.
- The remaining 26% came from online purchases made on computers.
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Categories of Best-Selling E-Commerce Products in Costa Rica and Leading Stores
This is the ranking of the best-selling products online in Costa Rica, based on the proportion of consumers who have purchased these products in the past six months:7
- Meals (from restaurants) — 78%
- Clothing and footwear — 57%
- Personal care products — 45%
- Food and groceries — 36%
- Technology products — 35%
As for online stores, the following stand out based on their monthly web traffic as of December 2024:8
- AliExpress (2.5 million)
- Walmart (2 million)
- Intelec (1.4 million)
- eBay (1.2 million)
- Samsung (1.1 million)
Key Insights into the Costa Rican E-commerce Market
Finally, here is some key information on payments and e-commerce in Costa Rica based on our data:
Domestic stores in Costa Rica account for 55% of total e-commerce sales.
The cross-border market is projected to grow by 10% in 2025.
Retail is the leading e-commerce vertical in Costa Rica, capturing 52% of sales. The second most important vertical is SaaS (software as a service), which accounts for 10%.
Next Step:
The PCMI E-Commerce Data Library
The data provided in this report is part of PCMI’s Latin America E-commerce Data Library. The Library covers not only Costa Rica but also 14 other countries in Latin America, featuring e-commerce market data such as:
- Historical volume of Costa Rica’s e-commerce market for 2023, 2022 and further back
- Projections of Costa Rica’s e-commerce market volume for 2024-2027
- Breakdowns by merchant vertical for e-commerce in Costa Rica: retail, travel, ride-hailing, digital goods and services like streaming
- Data on both cross-border and domestic e-commerce purchases in Costa Rica for 2024 and projections for 2025 and beyond
- Breakdowns and projections of payment methods used in Costa Rica e-commerce (international/domestic credit cards, Buy Now Pay Later, digital wallets and others)
Other key advantages make the PCMI E-commerce Data Library for Latin America a uniquely powerful tool for companies that seek a fuller understanding of e-commerce in the region:
- It’s customizable to client needs: you can obtain additional data you need for your company’s specific business concerns, beyond what the Library offers
- It’s budget-friendly: while detailed reports are available for 15 Latin American countries, you can just buy data on just 1 or save money by purchasing a country bundle
- It includes personalized guidance: every purchase of the Library entitles you to a free 1-hour consultation about the data with one of PCMI’s industry experts
- It offers unlimited sharing: there is no single-user license with the PCMI E-commerce Data Library for Latin America, so you can share it freely with your organization
Keep up to date with our e-commerce, payments and crypto insights:
Sources:
- Durán, A. (June 4, 2024). Bancarización aumenta hasta el 90% de los ticos mayores de 15 años. La Nación ↩︎
- PCMI E-commerce Data Library ↩︎
- Encuesta en el marco del Observatorio Comercio Electrónico, Costa Rica, 2022. Conversion of CR¢500.000 to US dollars ↩︎
- PCMI (2023) ↩︎
- Encuesta en el marco del Observatorio Comercio Electrónico, Costa Rica, 2022 ↩︎
- Encuesta en el marco del Observatorio Comercio Electrónico, Costa Rica, 2022 ↩︎
- Encuesta en el marco del Observatorio Comercio Electrónico, Costa Rica, 2022 ↩︎
- Semrush. (2024). Top websites in Costa Rica (Retail Industry). Traffic as of December 2024 ↩︎
