E-commerce volume on rise in Turkey: Report

ISTANBUL

Turkey's e-commerce volume surged 42% year-on-year in 2018, an industrial report said Wednesday.

The e-commerce sector volume reached 59.9 billion liras ($16 billion) last year, it added.

The report was a joint effort by Turkey's Informatics Industry Association (TUBISAD), Association of E-commerce Operators (ETID), Deloitte Turkey, Similarweb and Inveon.

"The sector maintained its rapid growth even in a challenging year for the Turkish economy," Kubra Erman Karaca, head of TUBISAD, told reporters.

Alper Gunaydin, a director at Deloitte Turkey, highlighted the high performance of major shopping sites.

Market share of the first 10 prominent shopping sites rose to 53% in the last five years from 40%, he noted.

The report showed that the average annual growth rate of the sector was around 33% between 2014 and 2018.

The fastest growing sub-sector was travel and leisure which showed a 54% rise, reaching 29.9 billion liras ($7.95 billion).

*Writing by Tuba Sahin from Ankara