Azernews.Az

The TürkMedya E-Commerce and Retail Summit was held at the Istanbul Financial Center, bringing together senior executives from government, finance, and the business world, alongside industry stakeholders. The summit was attended by Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat and Vice President of the Presidency’s Investment and Finance Office Bekir Polat. Opening remarks were delivered by Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, TürkMedya Executive Board Chairman Murat Çiçek, and Halkbank General Manager Osman Arslan.

The summit addressed the effects of digitalization on the retail sector, the growth of e-commerce volume, and future strategies.

In his speech, Minister Bolat underlined the momentum gained by e-commerce during the pandemic:

“We can easily say that the turning point for e-commerce was the Covid pandemic. That was the period when the importance of e-commerce became clear. I clearly remember that, in those days, whatever the business in computer and information technologies, it grew exponentially,” he said.

Sharing global and national data, Bolat noted:

“Global trade is expanding rapidly, and projections for 2026 foresee a global trade volume of $8.1 trillion. This figure was $5.5 trillion just four years ago, in 2022. In Türkiye, the share of people ordering goods and services online was 35 percent in 2020, when Covid began, and has now risen to 55.7 percent—nearly 56 percent—in 2025. This growth is continuing.”

Bolat emphasized the role of the Ministry of Trade in monitoring the sector:

“As the Ministry of Trade, we operate ETBİS, the e-commerce registration system. Each year we publish a report called The Outlook of E-Commerce in Türkiye. On May 6 this year, we announced our latest report. By the end of 2024, e-commerce volume reached 3 trillion Turkish lira. This includes everything—from ticket sales to clothing and food, essentially all e-commerce transactions. Compared with 2023, this represents an increase of 61.7 percent. Based on the average exchange rate at the time, this 3 trillion lira corresponds to about $90 billion in trade.”

He also highlighted the impact on retail e-commerce:

“Retail e-commerce reached 1.619 trillion lira in 2024, a 63.7 percent rise compared with the previous year. These figures are huge and growing every year far beyond inflation or revaluation rates. The share of e-commerce in our gross domestic product has reached 6.5 percent. Between 2019, before the pandemic, and 2024, the compound annual growth rate was 30 percent. Globally, e-commerce sales account for more than 19 percent of total retail sales, and this is expected to reach 25 percent by 2027. In Türkiye, e-commerce’s share in total trade has reached 19.1 percent, about one-fifth—similar to the global level.”

Bolat added that order volumes have grown sharply:

“The number of orders in Türkiye rose from 1.36 billion to 5.91 billion. The number of marketplace sellers increased from 57,000 in 2019 to 584,000. That’s a 919 percent increase—nearly a tenfold jump—in the number of sellers over five years. These figures show that e-commerce in Türkiye is advancing in giant strides. It is impossible for a business to survive in competition without taking digitalization and e-commerce into account.”

He also pointed to the entrepreneurial structure of the sector:

“Of all e-commerce businesses, 78.5 percent are sole proprietorships, 18 percent are limited companies, and 3.6 percent are joint-stock companies. This means e-commerce has spread widely, been embraced by society, and is seen as a powerful tool for competition, especially for individual entrepreneurs.”