Turkish e-commerce volume more than doubled, reaching $57.5 billion in 2023

On Monday, official data showed that Türkiye’s e-commerce volume more than doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year, suggesting that online shopping remains highly profitable after the boom seen particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to data shared by the Ministry of Commerce, the sector’s total volume increased by 115.15% year-on-year to TL 1.85 trillion ($57.47 billion).

The ministry on Monday published a comprehensive report titled “E-Commerce Prospects in Turkey”, which highlighted significant developments in the field of e-commerce.

The report examines the place of e-commerce in gross domestic product (GDP), general trade and retail trade.

The report shows that in addition to the increase in e-commerce volume, the number of orders also increased by 22.25% year-on-year, reaching 5.87 billion in 2023.

On the other hand, e-commerce volume is forecast to reach TL 3.4 trillion this year and the number of orders will increase to 6.67 billion.

The data showed that the ratio of e-commerce volume to general trade volume, which was 10.1% in 2019, increased significantly, reaching 20.3% last year. The share of e-commerce volume in GDP was 6.8%.

The data showed that 51% of the volume came from goods and 49% from services, while when taking into account the volume of card transactions, the figures were 63% from goods and 37% from services respectively.

Sectorally, the largest share of e-commerce was home appliances and small household appliances with TL 233 billion, followed by the electronics sector with TL 135 billion and the clothing, footwear and accessories sector with TL 127 billion.

Moreover, in accordance with the methodology developed by the ministry, which resulted in the adaptation index of Turkish provinces to e-commerce, the regions with the highest adaptation were identified.

According to this index, the provinces with the highest e-commerce adoption are Istanbul, Kayseri, Çorum, Izmir and Kocaeli.

The number of e-commerce companies in Turkey reached 559,412 last year. The provinces with the highest number of e-commerce companies were listed as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa and Antalya.

The data also showed that the busiest period in terms of transaction volume was November, driven by the campaign and Teachers’ Day. In November, e-commerce volume was 50% higher than the monthly averages throughout the year.

Additionally, when looking at the distribution of e-commerce spending by age, the 25-36 age bracket seems to stand out.