Ten or fifteen years ago, the words “sex shop” made a lot of people lower their voice. You pictured a shop with frosted windows on a side street, where you went in with your collar up and left as quickly as possible. Today the conversation is different. Newspapers talk about intimate wellbeing, price comparison sites publish lists of the most searched-for items around Valentine’s Day, and online pharmacies sell lubricant next to the sunscreen. This is a picture of the sex shop market in Portugal, based on published sources.
We wanted to understand what has changed without falling for the made-up figures that float around online. So we read what the Portuguese media have published on the subject in recent years. There is no official, comprehensive study of the sector in Portugal (as far as we know). What there is: news reports and data from specific shops and platforms. Put the pieces together and the trend is fairly clear.
2020: the lockdown that opened the door
When the country shut down in March 2020, plenty of people discovered home-made bread, binge-watching and living-room workouts. Some discovered other things too. In May that year, Público’s P3 spoke to several sex shops and brands. The story was similar from shop to shop: more website visits, new customers and online sales going up. One Lisbon shop reported online sales up by around 30%; another spoke of growth “in the region of 20%”.
Around the same time, Observador ran a feature headlined “Vibrators have been selling well”. A European brand present in dozens of countries said that its sales in Portugal, previously marginal, had risen considerably. Not everything was good news, mind you: a bricks-and-mortar shop interviewed by the paper, closed to the public, reported a drop in sales. The growth, clearly, was mostly online.
It makes sense. With shops closed and time on their hands, buying online became the natural option. And many people realised, perhaps for the first time, that they could do it in complete privacy from the sofa.
2021: not just a spike
The obvious question was: will this fade once lockdown ends? In February 2021, Público came back to the topic with a headline that said it all: the adult toy market “keeps on growing”. The article quoted an online pharmacy that had gone from almost no sales in this category to more than 500 regular orders, growth of over 600% compared with 2019.
The same piece pointed to international reports. According to Grand View Research, the global sex toy market was worth 33.64 billion dollars in 2020. That is a worldwide figure, not a Portuguese one, but it helps show the size of the sector we are talking about.
A year later, in February 2022, Impala reported, using data from Atida | Mifarma, that sex toy sales in Portugal had more than doubled in 2021. One detail caught our eye: according to the same source, over 70% of those purchases were made by women. So much for the old cliché of the sex shop as male territory.
Online, the new shop window for sex shops in Portugal
Jornal de Notícias told another part of the story: physical shops that, pushed by the pandemic, had to modernise their websites and take e-commerce seriously. A member of staff at a shop in Braga summed up the change well: “Online is here to stay, because we’re selling to parts of the country we never sold to before.”
That line says a lot about rural Portugal. In small towns, where everyone knows everyone, walking into a sex shop still takes courage. Buying online solves that in one go: nobody sees, nobody comments, and the order arrives in a box like any other.
2024: Valentine’s Day as a barometer
More recently, in February 2024, Essential Business published data from the price comparison site KuantoKusta: demand for these products rose by around 27% in the weeks before Valentine’s Day compared with the same period the year before. Average spend went up too, from €36.79 to €42.18. People aren’t just buying more often; they are willing to spend a little more on quality.
What we read in these figures
We should be honest: this data comes from specific shops, brands and platforms, each with its own sample. It isn’t a perfect statistical picture of the country. But when Público, Observador, JN and others report, over several years, stories that all point the same way, the trend is hard to ignore.
And the trend is, at heart, cultural. People talk more openly about pleasure, sexual health and life as a couple. Women are confident buyers. Couples look for ways to break the routine. And the internet has delivered what high-street shops never could for everyone: complete discretion.
Expectations have changed too. Today’s buyers want to know what a product is made of, how to clean it and whether it is body-safe. A flashy box is no longer enough. That’s good news: it means the sector is maturing.
And where do we fit in?
We started Pi Alfa with Portuguese honey, in Trás-os-Montes. The adult section came later, precisely because we saw that people here were looking for a trustworthy, local and discreet shop. We didn’t want a lurid shop window. We wanted a calm space with well-chosen products and clear information.
That’s why our selection of adult toys, lingerie, intimate cosmetics and games for couples is only shown to registered members. It isn’t about mystery; it’s about respect, both for those who buy and for those who’d rather not see.
If this article has sparked your curiosity, our guides to products for couples and intimate hygiene are a good place to start.
Who buys sex toys in Portugal
Put the various reports together and an interesting picture emerges. We are no longer talking about a “typical” customer, hidden and embarrassed. The data quoted by Impala points to a majority of female buyers. Shops interviewed by Público and JN talk about new customers, many from areas they never used to reach. And the rise in average spend on KuantoKusta suggests people are better informed and more demanding.
There’s another factor that seems obvious to us, even without figures to prove it: how naturally couples talk about all this. Giving an erotic card game for an anniversary, or a massage oil at Christmas, no longer raises eyebrows. More and more, it’s a gesture of intimacy.
Beware of “viral” figures
One final note that we think matters. When you research this market, you find lots of big, round, impressive numbers with no clear source. We prefer to stick to what we could confirm: bylined reports in well-known outlets, naming shops and platforms. If a serious national study of the sector is ever published, we’ll gladly update this article.
Until then, one thing is certain: the topic has stepped out of the shadows for good. And about time.
Frequently asked questions
Is the adult products market really growing in Portugal? Reports published between 2020 and 2024 by Público, Observador, JN, Impala and Essential Business all point that way, especially for online sales.
Who buys the most? According to Atida | Mifarma data quoted by Impala in 2022, more than 70% of sex toy purchases on that platform were made by women.
Why has online shopping become so important? Discretion, choice and convenience. People living far from the big cities now have access to the same products as those in Lisbon or Porto.
Pialfa 18: our adults-only shop
Pialfa 18 is the part of Pi Alfa reserved for registered members aged 18 and over. In Macedo de Cavaleiros and Bragança, delivery is direct and immediate. Elsewhere in Portugal orders arrive in 3 days, and in 1–4 days to the UK and the rest of Europe, always in plain packaging with no logos or hints about what’s inside.
Products and offers are only shown once you’re signed in. Just create your free account (it takes a minute) and visit the members area to see the full Eroticoshop selection.
Content intended exclusively for adults aged 18 and over.
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