Turkish shopping site prepares to expand abroad

ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News

Doğan Online chief executive Yenal Gökyıldırım says hepsiburada.com will start operating abroad this year. Company photo

Doğan Online’s virtual shopping webportal “hepsiburada.com” is set to expand abroad this year, according to daily Radikal.

Doğan Online Chief Executive Officer Yenal Gökyıldırım said the company was planning to take “hepsiburada.com” to a number of overseas countries this year and offer a membership model, whereby customers can purchase a variety of products and services.

“We currently offer 350,000 products in 36 separate categories. We have 15.5 million visitors to our site every month, meaning that we surpass conventional shopping centers 10 fold,” said Gökyıldırım. He also stressed that e-trade was a rapidly growing sector, expanding by approximately 50 percent per year: “It is now a 4 billion lira market.”

Doğan Online currently has 9 companies under its umbrella with a total of 16 labels. On April 5, Doğan Online will hold Turkey’s first digital festival, under the title “Generation ‘Do It Onliners.’” The festival is expected to host 3,000 people. “We now have a generation that does everything online,” said Gökyıldırım. “We want to show what this generation does, what it wants, its shopping habits, and how it communicates.”