43 tech stores close in seven months in Turkey

Ahmet Can - ISTANBUL

A total of 43 tech retail stores have closed down in the last seven months in Turkey, mainly due to restrictions on the use of credit cards to purchase mobile phones, while also increasing revenues as they cut costs, figures have shown.

With the aim of increasing domestic savings and decreasing the current account deficit, Turkey’s banking watchdog (BDDK) introduced limitations in 2014 on monthly installment payments to curb consumers’ use of credit cards to pay for goods in the hope of stemming the flood of money spent on imported goods.

These ambitious measures, however, have primarily hit the tech retail sector, among several others, causing a number of tech retail companies to close stores that have not posted good sales figures.

The number of tech retail stores decreased from 658 in November 2014 to 615 in May 2015.

This move has enabled tech retail companies to raise their revenues as they cut costs, according to sector professionals. They increased their revenues by 120 million Turkish Liras in the first quarter of the year from the same period of the previous year, up to 2.17 billion liras.