Only few SMEs engage in e-exporting: Report

ISTANBUL

Even though, e-commerce has enjoyed rapid growth in Türkiye, the share of Turkish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently e-exporting is at 4.1 percent, a survey has found.

The penetration rate of e-exporting among SMEs is currently low and signaling that there are further opportunities for engagement in this regard, according to the study conducted by PwC Türkiye with the support of Amazon Türkiye.

While the global cross border e-commerce value increased by 2.5 times in market value in a five-year period spanning 2017-2022, the e-export value in Türkiye increased by 2.8 times in market value for the three-year period covering 2019-2022, it said.

Some 25.3 percent of the SMEs, who were surveyed for the report, engage in e-commerce activities, according to the report.

The Turkish e-commerce market segment achieved an impressive compound annual growth rate of 80.6 percent between 2019 and 2022, with the e-commerce volume reaching 800 billion Turkish Liras last year, according to the report.

Based on Euromonitor’s e-commerce market segment growth forecast for the years 2020-2025, Turkish e-commerce is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 23.7 percent, the report said.

The same study predicts that the global compound annual growth rate will be 11.7 percent.

These findings underline the fact that while currently e-commerce is nascent across Türkiye in comparison to more mature channels, the e-commerce channel is poised to take off, driven by growing internet penetration and increased availability of quality online products, concludes the report.

The number of Turkish businesses engaging in e-commerce increased by 701 percent between 2019 and 2022.

“In a similar vein, the number of online orders has increased by 252 percent in the three-year period between 2019-2021,” said the report.