Turkey has a young, tech-savvy population and one of the fastest growing ecommerce markets in the world. This growth is largely driven by mobile commerce; around a quarter of online shoppers use mobile devices to make purchases over the internet. • Total Population - 75.5 million • Age Breakdown - Turkey is a young population, less than 15% of the population are over 55. • Religion - Turkey is mostly a Muslim country, 99.8% of the population are Muslim, mostly Sunni. • Urban Population - 72% • Internet Penetration - 48.9% penetration • Mobile Penetration - 70.8 million mobile subscribers at the end of Q2 2014. - 93% penetration • Tablet Penetration - Quarterly tablet shipments to Turkey grew 264.5% year-on-year to 746.499 units in 2013. - As part of the Movement to Increase Opportunities and Technology (FATIH) project, the Ministry of Education has distributed 732,000 tablet devices to students. • Smartphone Penetration - 29% • Online Shoppers - 10 million • Ecommerce Sales - EUR 12.5 billion (TRY 35 billion) • Ecommerce Penetration - 18% of the over 14 population. • Ecommerce CAGR (2008 – 2013) - 31.5% • Mobile Commerce - Mobile commerce has a high growth potential in Turkey, with smartphone penetration of almost one-third on the total population in 2013. - A value of approximately EUR 753.6 million (TRY 2.1 billion) in online shopping was made through mobile devices.
Cross-border Ecommerce Opportunities • Online orders in Turkey are still very focused on the domestic market. Only one in five has ever considered cross-border shopping. However, there is a high future interest for cross-border shopping. • The value of international ecommerce transactions made in Turkey reached over EUR 1 billion in 2013, growing by a third year-on-year. • Turkey is a favourable location for cross-border ecommerce, having a high credit and debit card penetration and strong physical infrastructure, aiding delivery. • 22% of distance selling customers in Turkey returned ordered goods, a figure below the global average of 27.5%. • Turkish consumers purchase cross-border from the US (49%), China (40.4%), Hong Kong (18.5%) the UK (15.4%) and Germany (12.1%).
Language as a Key Driver • The official language of Turkey is Turkish, spoken by 90% of the population. • Kurdish is spoken by 6% of the population, although not recognised as an official language.