E-commerce market size tops 800 billion Turkish Liras

ISTANBUL

The size of Türkiye’s e-commerce market grew from 382 billion Turkish Liras in 2021 to 801 billion liras last year, according to a recent report.

The number of e-commerce transactions increased from 3.4 billion to 4.8 billion, said the Türkiye E-commerce Ecosystem Report, prepared jointly by the Turkish E-Commerce Association (ETİD), İyzico and Dogma Alares.

The size of the Turkish e-commerce market corresponded to 6 percent of the country’s GDP last year, up from 5.7 percent in 2021.

The share of e-commerce in the retail sector rose from 13.7 percent in 2021 to 16.5 percent in 2022. This was only 5.3 percent in 2018. For comparison, it was more than 31 percent in China, 15.7 percent in Germany, and 26 percent in the U.S. Globally, e-commerce captured a 22 percent share in retail.

The average basket size rose by 79 liras from 2021 to 2022.

The number of users on e-commerce platforms increased by 2.2 percent. Female and male users accounted for 58 percent and 42 percent of all shoppers, respectively.

Fashion and accessories had the largest share in overall e-commerce with 31.6 percent, followed by electronic goods at 13 percent and cosmetics and personal care at 6.4 percent. The shares of services, tourism and travel were 6.1 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.

“The performance of the local e-commerce market, which ranks 18th globally, has been impressive,” said Emre Ekmekçi, the president of ETİD. He, however, added that e-commerce share in exports should increase from 1 percent to around 4 percent.

During the pandemic, the number of businesses engaged in e-commerce grew seven-fold, but this year fewer SMEs entered the e-commerce market, Ekmekçi said. “We expect the number of SMEs engaged in e-commerce to exceed 1 million in the next two to three years,” he added.