When the biggest obstacles for growth are industry players

As a technology journalist, what I want the most is the success of technology companies born in Turkey.

There is nothing that makes me happier than to report good things about our companies.

In this regard, I sometimes act like a volunteer brand ambassador for them or try to pressure authorities to pass laws in favor of technology companies like a lobbyist.

But I have to write if and when Turkish technology companies create unhappiness as well. This I think is for their own good as well.

The way that our e-trading companies handled Black Friday campaigns created a great backlash against e-shopping.

Both Hepsiburada and Trendyol - the two biggest online shopping platforms - could not intervene with the firms who have shops in those platforms from deceiving customers in various ways.

There are hundreds of photos of products with price tags before and after the great Black Friday sale, and it is really shocking.

For many items, the online retailers increased the price just hours before the big sale. For example, a boot is being sold at 100 Turkish Liras a day before the sale.

The shop increases the price of the boot to 200 liras hours before midnight, and then tries to sell it for 125 liras a day afterwards, claiming that there is a big reduction.

Furthermore, even after two weeks passed, there are still thousands of customers who could not get their items that they have paid for.

One report is that some cargo firms stopped shipping products from online retailers because they cannot handle the sheer volume.

And last but not least, there are rumors going around that credit card information of thousands of shoppers was stolen from an e-shopping platform during the sale.

E-trade is very important for Turkey, and it has to grow. And it has to grow both domestically and internationally.

Turkish producers would have enormous leverage if Turkish e-trading platforms can outgrow international competition.

However, it cannot do so if the greatest obstacle of growth is the e-trade platforms themselves.

Trust is a fickle matter. Building it is very hard, but losing it is very easy.

One of the biggest reasons for e-trade not to grow in Turkey as much as it should is the lack of trust in online retailers.

This has been the biggest barrier of growth for the industry for years. And just as people were getting used to online shopping, these kinds of disasters set us back at least five years.

The e-trade platforms should get their acts together.