Mobile commerce on the rise in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

According to online shopping website hepsiburada.com, one of every two orders is completed through handheld devices while 62 percent of its website traffic comes through such devices during weekends and holidays, showing the popularity of mobile shopping is rising rapidly in Turkey.

“Over the last year, mobile traffic to ‘hepsiburada.com’ has doubled,” according to a statement published on the site.

Burak Ertaş, the CEO of another Turkish shopping website called Sahibiden.com, agreed in an interview with Anadolu Agency, saying the importance of mobile traffic on the site was increasing rapidly.

The volume of electronic commerce reached 18.9 billion Turkish Liras ($6.2 billion) in 2014, according to the Istanbul-based Informatics Industry Association (TÜBİSAD).

Mobile commerce represents roughly $3 billion in trade volume taking into account that one of every two online transactions is being conducted on mobile websites.

German-based market research institute GFK’s Istanbul bureau said in June that during the first five months of this year, more than 4.5 million smartphones were sold. More than 11 million smart devices will be purchased in Turkey by the end of this year, according to the GFK.

In 2014, the sale of smartphones was 89 percent of total mobile phone sales. In 2013, this percentage was 74 percent.

Mobile commerce is “exploding all over the world,” Thomas Husson, a principal analyst at U.S.-based Forrester Research, told Anadolu Agency.

In Europe, mobile and tablet commerce already represents an average of more than 25 percent of online sales, Husson pointed out. 

“China, Japan, South Korea are mature mobile markets. Turkey will definitely be part of that group soon,” he added.

Husson stated that in some countries like India, Nigeria or Africa, mobile traffic has already surpassed desktop traffic. It can easily represent from 30 to 50 percent of retailers’ and brands’ traffic in Europe and the U.S.
 
Husson, however, stressed the huge opportunity lies in influencing sales through a highly developed mobile experience.