The B2C E-Commerce market in Turkey is emerging
Despite B2C E-Commerce in Turkey experiencing double-digit growth rates, retail E-Commerce penetration is still less than half that of advanced online retail markets such as the UK or the USA. The relatively low E-Commerce share, plus low Internet and online shopper penetration rate leaves Turkey among the emerging E-Commerce markets. However E-Commerce is developing, supported by drivers such as increasing Internet, mobile and social media usage rates.
Adoption of E-Commerce trends fosters growth of the Turkish online retail market.
Nearly half of online shoppers in Turkey made purchases through their smartphones and through social media in 2017. The main social commerce shopping destinations were Instagram and Facebook. Overall in online shopping, clothes were the most popular items in 2017, however in terms of basket value furniture earned first rank. Moreover, the holiday and travel sector experienced the highest growth rate in 2017, generating nearly the same sales amount as physical products.
Competition flourishes among local B2C E-Commerce players in Turkey
The online retail market in Turkey is mostly occupied by local online marketplaces and online classifieds sites. Sahibinden.com is the most visited online classified site, followed by online marketplaces Hepsiburada.com, N11.com, Gittigidiyor.com and Trendyol.com. Online merchants N11 and Hepsiburada represent the pure E-Commerce segment and were leaders in terms of market share. Moreover, N11 and Trendyol.com ranked among the top 100 retailers in Turkey. The pure online players face competition from store-based retailers, such as major Turkish electronics retailer Teknosa, which experienced double-digit growth rates in online sales in 2017.
Global giants also want a share in Turkish E-Commerce market.
One more driver to E-Commerce is the attractive investment environment of the Turkish E-Commerce sector. The world’s largest E-Commerce giants Amazon and Alibaba have shown interest in growing Turkish E-Commerce. Alibaba, for example, acquires a stake in local online shopping platform Trendyol and Amazon is reportedly planning to launch in Turkey by the end of 2018.
To find out more details of online retail and payment trends in Turkey see the full report by yStats.com, “Turkey B2C E-Commerce Market 2018”.
