The State of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing in Algeria (2026)

You read a lot of figures about e-commerce in Algeria. Many have no source, or copy another article that had none either. This page does the opposite: every figure comes from a published source, with its date and a link so you can check it.

When a figure doesn't exist in a reliable source, we say so instead of making it up. The data on this page was checked on November 11, 2026. We'll update it when new official figures are published.

Key takeaways for 2026

How many Algerians are online?

DataReportal's Digital 2027 report on Algeria, published on November 5, 2026 with October 2026 data, counts 41.0 million internet users in Algeria. That's 85.2% of a population estimated at 48.2 million people. The same report counts 3.2 million more internet users than a year earlier.

The report also counts 58.6 million mobile connections, or 122% of the population. The figure is higher than the population because many people have several SIM cards, for example one for work and one for family, or two operators to get a signal everywhere.

These figures should be read as estimates. DataReportal builds them from several sources and explains its own methods. They remain the best public picture of internet use in Algeria, and they say one clear thing: most of your potential customers are online.

Phones first: what ARPCE's figures say

ARPCE, the telecom regulator, publishes an internet market observatory. In Q2 2026, it counts 54,744,829 mobile internet subscribers, including 51,634,307 on 4G or 5G. Fixed internet counts 6,969,567 subscribers.

Fixed internet breaks down as follows: 3,582,568 fiber subscribers, 2,138,576 fixed 4G and 1,243,933 ADSL. In total, mobile internet makes up nearly 89% of the country's internet subscriptions.

For a business, the takeaway is simple. Your customer almost always finds you on a phone, often on 4G, sometimes with a weak signal. A heavy site, or one poorly built for mobile, loses customers before it even shows up. We explained what that costs in our article on the hidden costs of a slow mobile website.

Social media in 2026: who can you reach?

DataReportal counts 29.4 million social media user identities in Algeria in October 2026, or 61.1% of the population. An identity isn't necessarily a person: one person can have several accounts.

For each platform, the report gives the audience that ads can reach, according to each network's advertising tools:

Two cautions. First, DataReportal itself advises a lot of care before comparing these figures from one year to the next, because platforms often change how they count. Second, an ad audience isn't a list of buyers: it says how many people an ad can reach, not how many will buy.

What these figures still show: TikTok and YouTube now reach audiences as large as Facebook's in Algeria. For a business, the right network depends on its customers, not on the biggest number. We cover recent changes to Facebook and Instagram in our article on what changed on Instagram and Facebook in 2026.

Online payment is growing fast

GIE Monétique runs the network that connects bank cards and Edahabia cards to merchants. According to its 2025 review, reported by APS and Radio Algérienne on February 18, 2026, online card payments reached 145 billion dinars in 2025, across more than 27 million transactions, an increase of 179% in one year.

The same review counts 939 billion dinars of electronic payments in 2025, all channels combined (in-store payment terminals, internet and mobile), compared with 643.8 billion in 2024. The number of payment terminals in shops went from 68,140 at the end of 2024 to 78,774 at the end of 2025.

The growth continues in 2026. According to GIE Monétique figures published by Algérie Eco on August 7, 2026, 15,431,994 card payments were made online in the first half of 2026, 52% more than in the first half of 2025.

Cards are keeping up. According to a GIE Monétique representative quoted by Algérie Eco on October 1, 2026, about 23 million payment cards were in circulation in August 2026, including about 19 million Algérie Poste Edahabia cards and more than 4 million CIB cards. The Finance Minister had given a figure of more than 22 million cards at the end of March 2026, including nearly 18 million Edahabia cards.

How many online stores accept cards?

GIE Monétique counts "web merchants": websites authorized to receive card payments. There were 644 at the end of 2025, 1,004 at the end of June 2026 and 1,034 in August 2026. The number grew sharply in a few months, but it remains small for the size of the country.

Be careful about what this figure measures. It counts only websites that accept cards. It doesn't count sellers who collect payment on delivery, or those who sell through Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. So it doesn't give the total number of online sellers in Algeria.

The latest official figure we found on online sellers listed in the commercial register dates from 2022: nearly 2,500 operators, according to the National Commercial Register Center (CNRC), quoted by APS. We found no more recent official figure.

Cash on delivery: what the law says, and what we don't know

The e-commerce law is clear. Its article 27 says (our translation): "Payment for electronic commercial transactions is made remotely or on delivery of the product, by the means of payment authorized under the legislation in force." Cash on delivery is therefore legal, and the law doesn't require a seller to also offer online payment.

What we don't know is the exact share of purchases paid on delivery. You'll see figures of 60%, 80% or even "9 orders out of 10". We found no official or published study behind these figures. They come from blogs and commercial sites, with no source you can check.

What we can say for sure: more than 27 million card payments were made online in 2025, and the number of cards is growing. Cash on delivery remains allowed everywhere, and card payment is growing fast. A store that offers both closes the door on nobody. The reasons customers abandon their order are covered in our article on cart abandonment in Algeria.

Selling online: what law 18-05 requires

Law 18-05 of May 10, 2018 on electronic commerce sets the rules for selling online in Algeria. We found no amendment to this law between 2024 and 2026. Here are its main points, summarized in plain words. This summary doesn't replace legal advice.

These rules aren't only obligations. A buyer who sees the commercial register number, an address, a price including all taxes and clear return terms has more reasons to trust you than an anonymous store.

Self-employed status and online selling: a question that's still unclear

The auto-entrepreneur (self-employed) status, created by law 22-23 of December 18, 2022, exempts holders from listing in the commercial register (article 9). Yet law 18-05 requires listing in the commercial or crafts register to sell online (article 8).

We found no official text that clearly settles this point for selling products online. The activity list of the National Agency for Self-Employed Entrepreneurs (ANAE) does include a line for "e-commerce services", but it doesn't say what it covers.

If you're thinking of selling online under this status, ask ANAE or the CNRC before launching your store. A written answer is better than a suspended domain name later.

What these figures mean for a business

Phones come first. With nearly 89% of internet subscriptions on mobile, a site must first be built for a small screen and a variable 4G connection. Everything else comes after.

Trust matters as much as price. The law asks for clear information about the seller, and that's exactly the information that reassures a buyer who doesn't know you.

Social media grabs attention, but it doesn't keep information. A post disappears from the feed in a few days. A website keeps your products, prices and terms in one place, and it can show up on Google when someone searches for what you sell.

Card payment is no longer only for a few big brands. With more than a thousand merchant websites and about 23 million cards, it's becoming a serious option alongside cash on delivery.

How to judge a figure you read elsewhere

Before using an e-commerce figure for a decision, ask yourself four simple questions. They take a minute, and they keep you from building a project on a wrong number.

These questions also explain why some figures on this page seem to contradict each other. GIE Monétique's 1,034 merchant websites and the CNRC's 2,500 sellers don't measure the same thing, on the same date. The 29.4 million adults TikTok can reach and the 41.0 million internet users don't count the same thing either: one counts ad accounts, the other counts people.

The figures nobody has

Part of the market still has no public official figure. We found no reliable source for:

If you read one of these figures elsewhere, look for its source. A percentage with no study behind it shouldn't guide an investment decision. If an official source publishes one of these figures, we'll add it here.

Our sources

How SimplerWebs can help

We build online stores that are fast on phones, with cash on delivery included and the information the law requires clearly shown. Our e-commerce website design in Algeria starts at 219,900 DA.

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