Last year, online shopping spending increased by 85% year-on-year, and e-commerce companies increased their investment to target the Turkish market

The report said that part of the reason is that companies that sell and provide services through e-commerce are less affected by physical restrictions. Moreover, after the epidemic began to spread, Turkey's retail industry began to take quick action, increase investment in digital transformation, and conduct different research to meet consumers' urgent needs such as fast delivery and contactless payment.

E-commerce's share of Türkiye's retail turnover rises

Data shows that the share of e-commerce in the turnover of many retail and offline entities in Türkiye has increased significantly after the epidemic.

Eren Muddan , CEO of Boyner Department Store Turkey , said that the e-commerce market accounted for about 6% of Turkey's total retail turnover in 2019, and Boyner's e-commerce business accounted for 15% of the company's total turnover.

Mudan stressed that with the changes brought about by the epidemic, Boyner's e-commerce business has increased its share of total turnover to 25%. He said: "During the epidemic, more than 40% of new customers registered on Boyner.com.tr, and the purchase rate through its mobile app rose to 86%."

Orka Holding Chairman Suleyman Orakéoélu said that Orka's e-commerce sales increased by 130% in 2020 compared with the previous year. Although offline turnover inevitably declined, Orka's e-commerce share increased to 25% in 2020. Orka predicts that this proportion may reach 35%.

Turkish e-commerce will continue to increase digital investment

E-commerce company KOCTAS has been working on digital transformation for several years and has invested 100 million Turkish liras so far. Before the epidemic, KOCTAS's e-commerce business accounted for 8%. After the epidemic, this proportion barely rose to 9.5%. KOCTAS plans to allocate 30% of its investment to digitalization and increase this proportion to 75% this year.

Coincidentally, the online channels of porcelain retailer Porland helped it gain a wave of users last year, and its e-commerce sales increased nearly fivefold. Porland said: "During the epidemic, e-commerce accounted for 10% of our total turnover. Our goal is to keep our e-commerce channels on this upward trend. Therefore, we will continue to invest in our online channels and build systematic infrastructure."

Women’s growing importance in Türkiye’s e-commerce sector

According to Hakan Çevikoğlui , vice chairman of the E-Commerce Operators Association (ETID) , the number of online stores opened by women in the Turkish Internet market has increased by 25%. Hakan believes that e-commerce gives everyone the freedom to trade equally, and this proportion will increase over time.

In addition, Hakan said: "Currently, nearly 20% of our more than 25,000 suppliers are female suppliers, many of whom emerged during the epidemic."

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