Describes how widely e-Commerce is used, the primary sectors that sell through e-commerce, and how much product/service in each sector is sold through e-commerce versus brick-and-mortar retail. Includes what a company needs to know to take advantage of e-commerce in the local market and, reputable, prominent B2B websites.
Last Published: 6/17/2019

In Turkey, the size of the eCommerce market was $12.5 billion in 2018, a near 8% increase from the year prior and an over 20% increase since 2016.  The largest sub-sector contributing to this growth is travel & vacations, up from $4.1 in 2017 to $4.8 billion last year.  The average growth rate over the last 5 years has been 12%.

eCommerce Market Size

According to the Turkish Informatics Association, eCommerce makes up 4.1% of total retail, below the average for developing countries but a marked improvement since 2013, when it was only 1.9%.  The market size for goods that can be purchased online only is larger than that for goods with multi-channel sales.

90% of shoppers prefer to use credit cards when shopping online, and sales are nearly equally divided between Visa and MasterCard.  PayPal suspended operations in Turkey due to regulations mandating the payment industry to localize its customer data.

The usage of mobile devices in eCommerce is around 20%, compared with 44% worldwide, even though overall mobile penetration in Turkey is higher than the global average.  A significant proportion of product research is done on mobile devices (projected to reach 49% by 2021, compared with the projected world average of 55%).

Price advantage is the main reason (56%) cited for online purchases and a common and successful campaign strategy is to offer substantial discounts on an initial purchase.

Social media plays a significant role as it is the predominant reason for internet usage in Turkey, followed by video viewing.  YouTube penetration is the highest at 55%, followed by Facebook (53%) and Instagram (46%).

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.