Caribbean E-Commerce: What the Data Shows, and What It Cannot
Primary fieldwork for markets that published statistics do not yet reach.
ITC / UN-ECLAC Marketplace Explorer
UNCTAD, 2024
UNCTAD, 2023
There is no reliable figure for the size of the Caribbean e-commerce market. This is not a gap in our research. It is a gap in the world's.
UNCTAD, the United Nations body responsible for e-commerce statistics, reported in December 2025 that most countries still lack statistics capturing the value of online transactions, cross-border digital trade and the rapid expansion of social-media-based commerce. It convenes a Task Group on Measuring E-commerce Value, drawing on experts from around 30 countries, to finalise guidelines and recommendations for measuring e-commerce value. The measurement standard itself is still being written.
UNCTAD's own analysis of business e-commerce sales covers 43 developed and developing economies accounting for roughly three quarters of world GDP. Caribbean markets are not among them. The International Trade Centre and UN-ECLAC built the Latin America and the Caribbean Marketplace Explorer specifically because, in their words, a lack of timely data to monitor trends in both domestic and international e-commerce marketplaces may hinder the ability of governments and businesses to formulate appropriate strategies.
Any single figure presented as the Caribbean e-commerce market size, including any we may have published previously, should be treated with scepticism. What follows is what the named sources actually establish, and what has to be measured directly.
What Is Actually Known
| Finding | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Online retail share, global benchmark | China, UK, South Korea at roughly 25-30% of all retail sales; US around 15%; bulk of economies in a 5-10% range | UNCTAD, 2024 |
| Measurement coverage | 43 economies have measurable business e-commerce statistics, covering approximately 75% of world GDP. Caribbean markets excluded. | UNCTAD, 2023 |
| Measurement standard | Task Group on Measuring E-commerce Value convened with around 30 countries; guidelines not yet finalised | UNCTAD, 2025 |
| Regional marketplace landscape | Almost 900 goods-oriented marketplaces mapped across Latin America and the Caribbean | ITC / UN-ECLAC Marketplace Explorer |
| Regional e-commerce readiness | LAC's main opportunity for improvement is postal reliability. LAC was the only region whose index value improved versus 2019. | UNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index 2020 |
| Global e-commerce growth signal | Business e-commerce sales across the 43 measured economies rose from approximately US$25 trillion in 2021 to approximately US$27 trillion in 2022 | UNCTAD, 2024 |
Why Caribbean E-Commerce Is Hard to Measure
- +Cross-border digital trade is poorly captured in national statisticsUNCTAD, 2025
- +Social-media-based commerce (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Marketplace) is expanding rapidly and is largely uncountedUNCTAD, 2025
- +Most Caribbean national statistical offices do not run business ICT usage and e-commerce surveys, which are UNCTAD's primary instrumentUNCTAD, 2023
- +Postal reliability, the weakest dimension of LAC's B2C e-commerce readiness, also undermines the delivery data that measurement depends onUNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index 2020
A regional total would require primary measurement in each market. That is a research programme, not a lookup.
What HRG Measures
Where published data does not exist, it has to be collected. HRG conducts primary fieldwork across Caribbean markets: consumer surveys on online purchasing behaviour, retail audits covering both traditional and digital channels, and merchant-side research on payment methods, fulfilment, and cross-border logistics. For clients sizing a Caribbean e-commerce opportunity, this is the only route to a defensible number.
Discuss a Caribbean e-commerce studyFrequently Asked Questions
How large is the Caribbean e-commerce market?
No reliable figure exists. UNCTAD, the UN body responsible for e-commerce statistics, reported in December 2025 that most countries lack statistics capturing the value of online transactions and cross-border digital trade, and its Task Group on Measuring E-commerce Value has not yet finalised the measurement guidelines. UNCTAD's own analysis covers 43 economies; Caribbean markets are not among them. Any published Caribbean e-commerce market size should be treated with scepticism.
What is known about e-commerce in the Caribbean?
Almost 900 goods-oriented online marketplaces have been mapped across Latin America and the Caribbean by the International Trade Centre and UN-ECLAC. UNCTAD's B2C E-commerce Index identifies postal reliability as the region's main area for improvement, and LAC was the only region whose index value improved against the previous year. Globally, online retail accounts for roughly 5-10% of retail sales in most economies, around 15% in the United States, and 25-30% in China, the UK and South Korea (UNCTAD, 2024).
Why is Caribbean e-commerce so hard to measure?
Cross-border digital trade and social-media-based commerce are poorly captured in national statistics, and most Caribbean statistical offices do not run the business ICT and e-commerce surveys that UNCTAD's measurement depends on (UNCTAD, 2023; 2025).
How can a business size a Caribbean e-commerce opportunity?
Through primary measurement. HRG conducts consumer surveys on online purchasing behaviour, retail audits across traditional and digital channels, and merchant-side research on payments, fulfilment and cross-border logistics in Caribbean markets.
Sources
- UNCTAD, Business e-commerce sales and the role of online platforms, Technical Notes on ICT for Development No. 1 (2024)
- UNCTAD, Measuring the Value of E-commerce, Geneva (2023)
- UNCTAD, Stronger statistics to measure e-commerce and the digital economy (December 2025)
- UNCTAD, B2C E-commerce Index 2020
- International Trade Centre and UN-ECLAC, Latin America and the Caribbean Marketplace Explorer
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