ANKARA 

The volume of e-commerce in Turkey amounted to 136 billion Turkish Liras (nearly $20 billion) in 2019, the country’s trade minister said on Wednesday.

During a virtual meeting on Turkey's Electronic Commerce Information System (ETBIS), Ruhsar Pekcan shared some details of the country's e-commerce data that is compiled for the first time.

In the first five months of this year, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic, the volume of e-commerce reached 63.3 billion Turkish Liras ($9.2 billion)," Pekcan revealed.

This, she said, marks an increase of 48% compared to the same period last year, adding e-commerce food shopping increased six folds during the pandemic.

During the period, sectors showing the highest increase in card transactions were white goods and home appliances with 75% increase, clothing, shoes and accessories with 43%, electronics sector and software sector with 53% and 95% rises, respectively.

Emphasizing that this data will be the main source in all future analyzes related to the e-commerce, Pekcan said 85% of the country’s total e-commerce volume in 2019 comprised of domestic purchasing, 9% purchase from other countries through Turkish e-commerce sites, and 6% of Turkish citizens shopped from overseas.

Pekcan pointed out that currently a total of 68,457 businesses continue their e-commerce activities.

*Written by Aysu Bicer