E-commerce to reach $6.6 billion in Turkey by 2017

ISTANBUL/LONDON

Internet retailing in Turkey is expected to see an annual growth of 15.8 percent in constant value terms by 2017, 107 percent in total, reaching a market value of $6.6 billion, according to global market research company Euromonitor International.

Ongoing technological development, Turkey’s growing population and a sustainable rise in online shopping is expected to continue to support the rapid expansion of Turkey’s e-commerce sector.

The research company estimates internet usage to rise 27.5 percent between 2012 and 2017, driving e-commerce. Internet users made up 45.7 percent of the population in 2012, although the real value of internet retailing expanded by 314 percent in real terms from 2007 to 2012, Euromonitor said.

An increase by 124.4 percent in smartphones

The market penetration of smartphones is expected to increase by 124.4 percent between 2012 and 2017.

“The Turkish youth population is increasingly technologically literate and urbanized, having grown in the internet age and in cities, unlike their fathers. This trend is exacerbated by Turkey’s growing wealth, allowing more people to by luxury goods, such as smart phones and PCs…With the expansion of Turkey’s GDP per capita by 10.9 percent in real terms between 2007 and 2012, we expect a bright future for e-commerce,” Pavel Marceux, Euromonitor International’s technology, communications and media analyst said by a press statement yesterday.