Title: The impact of socio-economic and demographic factors on the individual use of e-commerce in Brazil: evidence of the digital divide

Authors: Gabriel Nery-da-Silva; Raul Afonso Pommer Barbosa; Júlio César Bastos de Figueiredo

Addresses: Department of Technology and Data Science, Getulio Vargas Foundation's São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), Av. 9 de Julho, 2029, Bela Vista, São Paulo, SP, 01313902, Brazil ' Department of Technology and Data Science, Getulio Vargas Foundation's São Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP), Av. 9 de Julho, 2029, Bela Vista, São Paulo, SP, 01313902, Brazil ' Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), Rua Joaquim Távora, 1240, Vila Mariana, São Paulo, SP, 04015013, Brazil; Department of Operations and Production Management, Getulio Vargas Foundation's São Paulo School of Business Administration, Av. 9 de Julho, 2029, Bela Vista, São Paulo, SP, 01313902, Brazil

Abstract: E-commerce plays a vital role in the Brazilian economy and people's lifestyles. To support e-commerce, it is essential to understand the Brazilian internet-user consumers' characteristics and identify barriers to e-commerce access. Here, we investigated socio-economic and demographic factors correlated with the individual use of e-commerce in Brazil. We developed three logit models to investigate such correlations using a sample from the national survey on ICT use. The results suggest that gender, age, ethnicity, education, income, and area of residence are significantly correlated with the individual use of e-commerce. Overall, the results clearly show that socio-economic attributes are the weightiest factor associated with purchasing online. By comparing our findings with previous studies, we believe that nationality and culture moderate the relationship between gender and online shopping. Finally, the results suggest that the access to technology and digital applications is still disproportional in Brazil, which indicates some degree of digital divide.

Keywords: online shopping; regional divide; inequality; consumer behaviour; information technology; quantitative analysis; Brazil.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2026.152204

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2026 Vol.51 No.3, pp.377 - 393

Received: 04 Jan 2022
Accepted: 02 Jul 2022
Published online: 11 Mar 2026 *

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