Portugal
Encouraging Digital Transactions
Population
Portugal had an estimated population of 10,196,709 as of the middle of 2020, according to UN data. Based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest UN data, the country had a population of 10,180,167 as of January 2021, with 66.5% living in urban areas, mainly Lisbon, Porto, and Amadora. The median age of the population was 46.2 years. Portugal's online population grew to 7.6 million by the end of 2019 from 7.24 million in 2018, according to the PPRO WECE Report.
E-commerce
Portugal is a well-established market for e-commerce due to high levels of internet and smartphone penetration. According to JPMorgan, the market is dominated by a younger demographic, with fashion and technology being key features of e-commerce in Portugal. The average annual revenue per paying user increased to $1,555 by the end of 2019 from $1,432 in 2019, according to the PPRO WECE Report. JPMorgan reported that Portugal’s total retail e-commerce sales rose to €6.1 billion ($6.8 billion) in 2020 from €4.3 billion ($5.23 billion) in 2019. Most cross-border e-commerce purchases by Portuguese are of products from China, the United Kingdom, and Spain.
Payment preferences
A significant number of Portuguese shoppers prefer to pay by card (44%), followed by e-wallets, bank transfers, cash, and other payment methods. For cashless payments, the big players are Multibanco, Visa, PayPal, Mastercard, American Express and MB Way, while new players include Apple Pay and Google Pay. According to JPMorgan, e-commerce payments in Portugal are dominated by the domestic brand Multibanco.
Economy
According to IMF data, Portugal had a gross domestic product of $237.71 billion in 2019, which declined to $221.72 billion in 2020 due to the pandemic. As the economy continues to recover, Portugal's GDP is expected to rebound to about $257.06 billion in 2021.
Internet & mobile phone trends
According to the Instituto Nacional de Estatística, 76.2% of the population aged 16-74 have internet access. According to Datareportal, Portugal had 8.52 million internet users as of January 2020, having increased by about 251,000 (+0.3 percent) from 2019, bringing the internet penetration rate to 83%. Meanwhile, smartphone penetration dropped to 67% by the end of 2019 from 68% in 2018, according to the PPRO WECE Report.
Banking
According to data compiled by learnbonds.com, 76.65% of people in Portugal had bank accounts in 2019, with only 34% of them credit card holders.