QCOSTARICA – While a small percentage in Costa Rica make only purchases, estimated around 12%, it is the country in the region with the most online shoppers.
According to data from Kantar Worldpanel, as reported by La Nacion, the country has a 88% internet coverage, twice the average of Central America, at 47%.
Kantar‘s research on e-commerce (online commerce) revealed that only 31% of Latin American households shopping online, while 69% prefer to buy directly in stores.
Central America remains the most conservative region in shopping online, with 7% in Central America turning to online stores to purchase a product, compared to 93% who preferred buying in traditional stores.
The top countries in Latin America in terms of online shopping are Argentina with 50%, Peru with 38% and Brazil with 34%.
Barriers to e-commerce
While in Costa Rica 80% of consumers prefer to see and touch the product before making the purchase, in the Latin American 76% of respondents said the same, 47% saying they do not know how to use the Internet for shopping and 44% said they distrust enter payment data online.
The Customer Connection 2016 study was based on a mapping of 10,000 households in major cities in Latin America, on trend and consumer habits.
