After the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the online retail in Turkey experienced significant growth from 2019 to 2020. The overall online sales value increased by over 65% between 2019 and 2020. In addition, the retail sales in Turkey accounted for over half of total E-Commerce sales in 2020. The B2C E-Commerce market in Turkey was forecasted to surpass the 400 billion euros in 2021 and grow twofold in 2022, which confirms the trend toward online shopping adoption in the country. Namely, the share of customers shopping online in total Turkish population increased by 7.8 p.p. from Q1 2020 to reach nearly 45% in Q1 2021. Another remarkable detail is that Turkey was projected to have the most rapid compound annual growth rate between 2020 and 2024 in E-Commerce sales, compared to other major markets in the world.
Furthermore, mobile commerce in Turkey is booming with the significant share of online shoppers in the country opting to make purchases through a mobile device. In the first half of 2021, mobile platform accounted for nearly 3 in 5 of online sales in Turkey, with Web sales responsible for the remainder. Moreover, over a half of Internet users surveyed in Q3 2020, made an online purchase using a mobile device. The weekly hours spent on shopping apps in Turkey increased by more than 30% during the December 27th week in 2020 compared to the similar week in 2019. The most common product category shopped online for in the country was “clothes, shoes and accessories” in Q1 2021, followed by deliveries from restaurants, fast-food chains, catering services and food or beverages from stores or from meal-kits providers.
