In Costa Rica, most of the customers who make purchases through digital channels are young women, a good part of this group of people resides in San Jose and buy through social networks.
E-commerce has become important in all markets, especially since the declaration of emergency due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and the restrictions on the mobility of people imposed by Central American governments.
Starting in August, Correos de Costa Rica will implement a web portal called "Marketplace", which will be focused on marketing products of micro, small and medium enterprises.
The new portal will offer the functionalities of online payments, delivery logistics through the Pymexpress service, in addition to allowing companies to implement marketing campaigns, as well as the generation and use of QR codes.
In December 2018, Costa Rican SMEs reported a 25% increase over the previous month in online sales.
Correos de Costa Rica reported that according to the platform Pymexpress, during the past month were recorded about 40,000 shipments of products corresponding to online sales.
Nacion.com reviews that "... Meanwhile, the international cargo registry increased 19%, also in December with respect to November, detailed the report.
Increasing competition has forced five major companies sharing the market to diversify their services beyond simple forwarding of packages.
From online shopping and home delivery to options to pay utility bills; these are part of the services for which several companies are in the industry are counting on to maintain competitiveness against their peers in the market of courier services in Costa Rica.
In 2006 the state run company Correos de Costa Rica was dying, but an aggressive policy of diversification of services has made it the main competitor in the courier market today.
For the month of August Correos de Costa Rica announced the launch of Box Correos, in direct competition with the specialized companies Aerocasillas, JetBox, DHL, Speed Box and E-Package Express.
The service will be provided through the post office services of Costa Rica and Peru, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia.
It will launch on March and will operate at first on 4 branches located in Montes de Oca, Cartago, Alajuela and downtown San José.
“Correos de Costa Rica will charge $5 for any wire started in the country and up to $10,000. The fee will be the same no matter the amount”, reported Nacion.com.
The bill would grant state-owned "Correos de Costa Rica" a monopoly over letters or packages weighting less than 500 grams.
These regulations would only affect basic postal service and not courier services.
"...the bill stipulates that the cost of any mailing weighing more than 500 grams will be defined by the market", reports Nacion.com. "In contrast, the price for mailing anything weighing less than 500 grams will be regulated by a public entity, which could be Aresep (Public Services Regulation Authority)".
The State's Postal Service, "Correos de Costa Rica", commenced a pilot plan for sending to and receiving money from Nicaragua.
Starting February, the service will be expanded to Spain, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Peru.
Álvaro Goghi Gómez, executive president of the company, commented that "the Universal Postal Union gave them a one year license and software for participating in this market.
Aimed at SMEs, "Exporta Fácil", Spanish for "Easy Export", allows companies to export through the postal service, and is now available in 47 postal offices.
The system permits exports of up to 30 kilograms and three cubic meters to 190 different destinations. It was created through an association between Procomer, an exports promotion agency, and the Costa Rican Postal Service.
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