Turkish e-trade market to grow 50 pct this year

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

As the number of internet shoppers in Turkey increases rapidly, the proportion of online shopping will increase its 3-4 billion Turkish Liras share by over 50 percent this year, according to data from the Electronic Trade Managers Association (ETİD).

Hakan Orhun, Chair of ETİD, told the Anatolia news agency that while in 2005 the average person would spend 76 liras on online shopping, in 2011 this number was 182 liras.

“All the figures show that e-trade is growing by close to 50 percent each year. These figures also include telecommunication, airlines and insurance companies’ statistics,” said Orhun, who added that he believed online shopping could grow by as much as 100 percent this year.

“Today the number of internet shoppers in Turkey is about 5 million or about 16 percent of total internet users ... Our first goal is to increase the number of online shoppers to the numbers of internet banking users,” said Orhun, adding that the 10 percent increase in online shopping from December 2011 to January 2012 had really boosted their morale.

According to Orhun, Turkey is one of the world’s fastest growing e-trade markets. While the American and British e-trade markets grew by 16 and 17 percent, respectively in 2011, the Turkish market grew by 50 percent. He also noted that in the past while people who worked were more likely to engage in online shopping, the recent trend showed that housewives as well as retirees were also becoming avid online shoppers.