Comerç electrònic a Puerto Rico

E-commerce

Internet access

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 and decimated the island's infrastructure. Since then, the island has been slowly getting back on its feet, but so far the internet has only reached about 200,000 Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico's communications infrastructure suffered incredible damage, to such an extent that the portion of the island that is connected does it though internet balloons that are currently over Puerto Rico. It is estimated that mobile phone service will be back to pre-hurricane rates by the end of 2018. However, the number is still unclear when it comes to internet connections.

E-commerce market

E-commerce in Puerto Rico has had an indisputable growth over the past few years. According to the Association of Sales and Marketing Executives of Puerto Rico, around 800 thousand people made purchases online, spending an average of US$ 158 per person. According to this data, online sales in Puerto Rico would result in about US$ 127 million. That represents an increase of 13% when compared to 2016, when sales added up to US$ 112 million. As part of its new economic development plan, Puerto Rican officials are looking to technology and entrepreneurship to revitalise their economy. Over the last year, however, the e-Commerce sector has been greatly impacted by the damages caused to Puerto Rico's infrastructure by Hurricane Maria. Most noticeably, the internet is now no longer widely available, making e-Commerce penetration very low. Some of the most popular e-commerce websites in Puerto Rico are classificadosonline.com, shop.pr, Walmart, Ebay, and Amazon.