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Santo Domingo.- Ramón Pérez Fermín, Vice Minister of Commerce of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM) of the Dominican Republic, believes that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of e-commerce as a replacement for cash payments throughout the region. The pandemic increased reliance on digital payment methods for both consumers and businesses. Pérez Fermín points out that the Dominican Republic has a solid regulatory framework that, in collaboration with the private sector, has driven constant growth in electronic transactions.
In 2020, the Dominican Republic recorded 11,334,632 online transactions for a total of 28,255 million pesos. By 2023, 35,655,414 transactions have already been carried out for a value of 59,541 million pesos, exceeding the 25,727 million transactions in 2022 and it is projected to exceed 63,676 million pesos for the same year.
The use of non-cash methods has also increased significantly: point-of-sale transactions increased from 194,884 million transactions in 2020 to 236,297 million transactions in 2023, accompanied by an increase in credit and debit cards of eight billion in 2020 to more than ten billion in 2023.
Pérez Fermín attributes the growth of e-commerce to changes in consumer patterns and habits, particularly among the younger generation, who feel increasingly comfortable using the Internet for information and purchases.
It notes that e-commerce has played an important role in the economic recovery of the Dominican Republic, where GDP levels exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with a growth rate of 12.3% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022.
In addition, the Dominican Republic has more than 9.75 million active mobile phones and 9.61 million Internet users. The widespread adoption of digital payment mechanisms and internet access has contributed to the growth of electronic commerce in the country, making it one of the leading nations in internet penetration in Central and South America, with more than 86% of the connected population having access to the Internet.
