Turkey: E-commerce volume up 64% in H1 amid COVID-19

Spurred by the novel coronavirus pandemic, Turkey's e-commerce volume surged 64% year-on-year in the first half of 2020, the country's trade minister announced Thursday.

The January-June figure hit 91.7 billion Turkish liras ($14.2 billion), up from 55.9 billion Turkish liras ($9.98 billion) in the same period last year, Ruhsar Pekcan said.

She underlined that 91% of the total e-trade volume in the first six months of the year was made up of domestic spending, versus 81% in 2019.

The share of e-commerce in the country's total trade reached 14.2% in January-June, up from 8.4% in the same period last year, Pekcan added.

The volume of the payments via bank cards for Internet trade amounted to 58.1 billion Turkish liras (some $9 billion), or 63.3% of the total, she noted.

She pointed out that orders via the internet rose from 558.7 million units to 850.8 million during the same period.

After hovering around 37% and 49% from March to May when lockdown measures were implemented in Turkey, the rise in e-commerce hit 93% in June thanks to the normalization process, Pekcan stated.

Food and markets saw the highest rise in transactions via debit and credit cards, up 400% on an annual basis, followed by the software sector (over 100%), garden, furniture and decoration sector, clothing (up 95%), and household appliances (up 90%).

"Meanwhile, airlines, transportation, accommodation, and entertainment and art saw the largest drop in e-trade volume," the trade minister said.