E-commerce, which young consumers who are into internet and smartphones and addicted to social media are adapted easily and middle-aged consumers have started to prefer lately, started to take firm steps forward.
Trade in the world has changed a lot, thanks to the habits changing due to the internet revolution and the absence of frontiers. Smartphones, mobile applications, and social media platforms have altered the expectations of the consumers.
Proactive brands also started to use these social media networks aside with traditional ones, to keep pace with the changes, to communicate with the customers, to ensure customer loyalty and provide sustainable communication. With this interaction, new systems, technologies, secure payment methods, and new generation logistic systems have merged together. These improvements resulted in the rise of online outlets which aim to offer a fast, simple and secure shopping experience and their improvement day by day. Especially in the recent years, e-commerce holds a prominent place in our lives, thanks to fast and easy access to the internet, smartphones, and mobile applications.
E-commerce has been in our lives since the 2000s when online shops and private shopping companies showed up in Turkey. As young consumers who are into internet and smartphones and addicted to social media are adapted easily and middle-aged consumers have started to prefer it lately, e-commerce started to take firm steps forward. And now the market is even stronger since brands have opened their own online shops as well because using both online and offline outlets created a feeling of trust amongst the consumers. Some brands decided to use online outlets to deplete their stocks with discounted prices. Competition, investments of global brands, easiness of communication with the customer, and more sales with less cost attracted the brands and increased the tendencies. But in the market where approachability got this easy and competition increased; infrastructure deficiencies, fall of prices, increasing logistical costs, increase of return costs decreased the interest and led some companies to downfall. Apart from this, some companies that received funds and investments from large groups because of their success failed to put the investments in good use, decreased their interests and turned their stories of success into failures. Websites that took smart steps with system and technology, that did not give up on their interest objectives, that could offer special products, that kept track of their stocks, and that offered the customers services other than prices became prominent. Many companies also succeeded in expanding this online experience with actual shops to increase their customers’ fidelity day by day. It is possible to see such stories of success and failure in our industry.
When we take a look at these stories of success and failure, the reports that say our trade volume has increased by 31% since last year say that the market has gone from TRY 18,9 billion to TRY 24,7 billion. Apparently, these growth rates are different for each industry.
When we go through this growth, we still see that e-commerce is a small fraction of the Turkish retail market. It is also up-to-date information that 35 of Turkey’s 100 biggest retailers do not have an e-commerce website and that e-commerce makes up 1.3% of the total retail sales. Latest researches show that 6 out of 10 credit cards still have not been used for online shopping and that Turkish e-commerce failed to reach 33 million out of 55 million credit cards. Since the majority of people use more than one credit card, we can say many people are still reluctant at using their credit cards at online sales websites. This is, unfortunately, a consequence of some bad experiences from the past.
At this point, especially with the help of many websites that work with the 3D technology, the danger is almost canceled out. On the other hand, these new payment methods offer secure and user-friendly options.
When we look at the situation in our industry; while high general expenses at shopping malls increase the bills paid by corporate companies day by day, some online shopping websites which do not even keep stocks pave the way to an unfair competition. Such companies sell items online without even investing in their own systems. Since these companies can only compete through their prices, they sell goods for an undervalued price, which decreases the value of the brand and the item. More importantly, this type of companies harms the reputation of the brands since they don’t serve the customer well in terms of stocks, delivery, guarantee, and service.
At the present time, price comparison websites are popularly used by ultimate customers in industries such as electronics and tourism. These price comparison websites are at least as popular as marketplaces in our industry as well. Customers who like the brand and the product visit these websites to find the most suitable sales point for themselves. While some customers prefer these platforms for a cheaper price, some still visit stores or authorized sales agents since they do not trust online purchases. While companies develop these strategies, they may be thinking they are increasing their companies’ e-commerce volume, but such bad strategies impede the success of the industry on the long-term. If brands and wholesale baby shops provide online sales websites with true and balanced prices; the market can grow without the suffering of the brands and the goods. Therefore, the fast-growing e-commerce market in Turkey turns into an opportunity for our industry.
To sum it up; if we keep going with online sales points that do the right system and technology investments, that serve the customers perfectly, that are aware of brands and products, we believe this volume will keep increasing day by day.