Online Shopping in Portugal

The small print: Portugalist may generate a commission from mentioned products or services. This is at no additional cost to you and it does not affect our editorial standards in any way. All content, including comments, should be treated as informational and not advice of any kind, including legal or financial advice. The author makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors or omissions or damages arising from its display or use. Links to external websites do not constitute an endorsement. [Disclaimer Policy]

Written by: | Last updated on February 29, 2024 | Est. Reading Time: 7 minutes

Although Portugal has fantastic high-speed home internet, online shopping is not as popular in Portugal as it is in other countries. But it’s growing in popularity – both as a way of buying from Portuguese retailers and also as a way of buying (often cheaper) products from abroad.

Read the guides

Shopping at some sites – Amazon, for example – isn’t always straight-forward, but Portugalist’s guides help make things easy to understand.

Amazon

Amazon doesn’t officially have a presence in Portugal yet, but that doesn’t stop people shopping at Amazon Spain, Germany, UK, and even Amazon US.

Generally speaking, Amazon.es (Amazon Spain) is the best option of these for several reasons:

  • It offers free shipping for orders over €29 (or €19 for books).
  • It’s generally faster than ordering from Amazon Germany or Amazon France.
  • Amazon Spain is available in Portuguese or Spanish (although most people reading this will want to translate to the content to English).

The second best option is Amazon.de (Amazon Germany) which often has a better selection, but delivery isn’t as fast (or cheap) as it is with Amazon Spain.

Of course, sites like Amazon.com (Amazon US) or Amazon.co.uk (Amazon UK) have an even better selection, but as they are outside of the EU, you will likely need to pay import charges if you order from them.

eBay

EBay may not be as popular as classifieds website OLX, but that doesn’t mean it’s not popular – some estimates suggest that, in Portugal, it’s even more popular than Amazon.

Read more in Portugalist’s guide to shopping at eBay from Portugal.

Top 20 Online Shops in Portugal

What’s the most popular online shop for Portuguese shoppers? If you thought Amazon, which is what I guessed, you’d be wrong – at least according to data I was able to get from SimilarWeb, a web analytics company.

According to SimilarWeb, the most popular e-commerce and shopping website in Portugal is OLX. 

Of course! OLX, the Craigslist of Portugal, is the most popular website for buying things in Portugal whether that’s second hand furniture, a house, or even farm animals. 

Is it an online shop, though? Most people would say no. In that case, the most popular online shop in Portugal is Worten followed by Aliexpress and then Fnac.

Top 20 Shopping Sites OverallTop 20 Shopping Sites (online shops only)
olx.ptworten.pt
worten.ptaliexpress.com
custojusto.ptfnac.pt
aliexpress.comebay.com
fnac.ptcontinente.pt
ebay.comamazon.com
continente.ptamazon.es
kuantokusta.ptpcdiga.com
amazon.comwook.pt
amazon.esamazon.co.uk
pcdiga.comebay.co.uk
wook.ptlidl.pt
amazon.co.ukbanggood.com
ebay.co.ukwish.com
trovit.ptelcorteingles.pt
lidl.ptaki.pt
banggood.comticketline.sapo.pt
wish.comamazon.de
elcorteingles.ptconforama.pt
aki.ptmercadolivre.com.br

Unsurprisingly, a lot of online shopping in Portugal is international. This isn’t just expats that shop here, but Portuguese shoppers as well. 

Amazon

According to SimilarWeb, more people in Portugal use Amazon.com than Amazon.es. This could be true, but it does seem unlikely as it shopping at Amazon.com (the US site) means paying customs and import duties on online orders.

Anecdotally, most people I know shop at Amazon Spain or, at least, look at Amazon Spain first. Amazon Spain doesn’t have as good a selection as Amazon UK or Amazon Germany, but it’s geographically closer and, unlike the other Amazons, it offers free shipping on orders over €29 or €19 for books.

Either way, Amazon appeared several times in the top 20 for Amazon.com, Amazon.es, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.de.

eBay.com

EBay actually ranks higher than Amazon, according to this report. There are a couple of reasons why this might be.

Firstly, if you’re shopping from Portugal, it’s actually easier to use than Amazon.

With Amazon, often you don’t know how much shipping will be until you get to the checkout. Sometimes, and this is actually quite regular, you’ll find out that the seller doesn’t actually ship to Portugal. 

Ebay is much easier. You can click to short by ‘Price + Shipping: Lowest First’ and eBay will include the cost of shipping the product to Portugal. If the product can’t be delivered to Portugal, eBay won’t show it. 

Gearbest

Gearbest is a popular site for buying electronics, clothes, toys, and just about everything else from China. The products are usually much cheaper than what you can find in Europe, but are usually made by a brand you’ve never heard of. Standard shipping is also generally quite slow, and orders often take more than a month to arrive and are often stopped by customs.

That said, it’s usually very affordable and, if you know what you’re looking for, you can often save quite a bit of money by shopping there. 

Aliexpress

Aliexpress is another popular shop for buying Chinese-made products, not just in Portugal but around the world. It’s particularly popular in countries like Brazil, Russia, the United States, and Spain. 

Essentially, Aliexpress is eBay but for brand new, Chinese-made products. This could be anything from gadgets and electronics to clothing, but also power tools, home and garden appliances, furniture, or sporting equipment. You name it, you can get it on Aliexpress. 

As with Gearbest, shipping can be quite slow and many items get held up in Portuguese customs. 

Although international sites like Amazon and Aliexpress are extremely popular in Portugal, that’s not to say that Portugal doesn’t have its own native companies. The following are just a handful of the most popular online shops in Portugal. 

Worten

Worten is a Portuguese chain that sells electronics and home appliances – everything from laptops and mobile phones to fridges, televisions, and blenders. You’ll find a Worten in just about every part of Portugal, including Madeira and the Azores, as well as in parts of Spain. Worten’s online shop, worten.pt, is one of the most popular Portuguese online shops in Portugal. 

Fnac

Fnac is a French chain that sells music, electronics and appliances, gifts, gaming equipment and video games, and toys. Like Worten, Fnac is fairly widespread and you’ll find a Fnac store in most parts of Portugal. 

OLX

OLX technically isn’t a shop. It’s a classifieds website, similar to Craigslist in the US or Gumtree in the UK and Australia. It isn’t the only classifieds website in Portugal. Other popular sites include Sapo, Custo Justo, Coisas, and Miau. 

Still, it’s one of the most popular Portuguese destinations for online shopping. Like Craigslist or any other classifieds website, you can buy everything here from new and second hand mobile phones to furniture, clothes, cars, and more. 

Continente

Continente is one of Portugal’s largest Portuguese supermarkets but, as well as being a place to buy groceries, it’s also a popular place to buy homewares, furnishings, furniture, gifts, and toys. 

Wook

Wook is a Portuguese online bookshop that sells printed books and ebooks. Prices tend to be higher than Amazon but, despite this, it’s still one of Portugal’s most popular online stores. 

Ticketline

Ticketline is Portugal’s largest ticket website. If you’re looking for tickets to concerts and events, the theatre or even the cinema, there’s a good chance it’s sold through Ticketline. As so many events are sold through ticketline, it’s actually a good website to look at just to see what’s happening locally. 

Written by

James Cave is the founder of Portugalist and the author of the bestselling book, Moving to Portugal Made Simple. He has visited just about every part of Portugal, including Madeira and all nine islands of the Azores, and lived in several parts of Portugal including Lisbon, the Algarve, and Northern Portugal.

You can contact James by emailing james@portugalist.com or via the site's contact form.

Spotted a mistake? Suggest a correction

There are 18 comments on this article. Join the conversation and add your own thoughts, reviews, and stories of life in Portugal. However, please remember to be civil.

Comments

  1. Hallo,
    What if amzon have officials site in Portugal ??
    Let’s make Amazon Portugal are u ready!!!
    Let’s make news officially….

    Reply
  2. Do people experience a lot of issues with receiving their purchases from outside the country? U.K.,USA, other European countries?

    Reply
    • Hi Giselle,

      There shouldn’t be any problems ordering products from another EU country but, yes, purchases coming from places outside of the EU like the USA get stopped at customs.

      Reply
    • YES, the tax authority seizes everything from outside the EU they can, and make retrieving them a nightmare.
      You better speak Portuguese because you wont succeed otherwise. Their site is opnly in Portuguese and even for Portuguese is difficult to navigate.
      It is the epitome of greed combined with a bureaucracy that has NO external controls.

      Reply
  3. When I was in Lisbon, I bought this product but I am unable to locate here in US.
    The product is called” Casa Pontinha de Sal Tempero para Peixes”
    Please advise.
    Thank you.
    Alan Sazant

    Reply
    • It depends.

      Are you buying from a seller in the EU? If so, then there are no import taxes to pay.

      If you’re buying from outside of the EU (e.g. the USA) then you do need to pay import taxes. EBay has a “Global Shipping Program” that allows you to pay those taxes in advance when you go through the checkout, but, from experience, your item may still get slowed down at customs – although you won’t have anything to pay.

      This service isn’t available for all items, and you can choose to pay the customs yourself as well.

      So, basically it depends on where the seller is located.

      Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.