Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board Member Seyit Ardıç, in his speech at the opening of the program, said that e-export is an important export channel for Türkiye. Stating that increasing digitalization worldwide has changed consumption behaviors, which has created a huge market in the field of e-commerce, Ardıç said that there has been a big leap in this field, especially after the Covid-19 outbreak, and that e-commerce is the lifeblood for companies that can adapt to digital transformation from production to service stage.

Emphasizing that exports can be accelerated by rapidly implementing and expanding new export methods, Ardıç said: “Saving time and cost is very important for all of us, and e-export does exactly that, enabling access to new markets and wider customer masses. So let's look for ways to spread e-export to the base.”

Pointing out that e-commerce accounts for about one-fifth of global sales, Ardıç said, “The volume of e-commerce in the world is expected to exceed 5 trillion dollars by 2026. This is a huge market and a great opportunity for e-export. Currently, 3 percent of our exports are realized through e-exports. Our first goal is to increase this rate to 10 percent.”

Reminding that e-export is supported by new laws and sub-legislation, Ardıç said that the Ministry of Trade is working hard for e-export.

Ardıç pointed out that they support the Ministry's work for e-export and noted the following: “There are many new e-export supports and projects ranging from warehouse rent and order fulfillment, promotion and marketplace support. These supports are a great opportunity for SMEs to start e-export or improve their existing operations. Türkiye is a sought-after market and has a lot of marketable products. Türkiye's proximity to major global and strategic markets also brings significant advantages in terms of e-export. In order to benefit from these advantages, companies need to reconsider their strategies and operations with the possibilities of rapidly developing technology.”

Stating that they have carried out various studies to increase the digital transformation of companies and their investments in this field both within TOBB and in ASO, where he serves as the chairman, in order to spread e-export to the base, Ardıç made the following assessment: “To date, we have carried out many awareness projects for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to start e-commerce and e-export. Finally, we are preparing our companies for e-export, especially the American market, with our collaborations with Amazon and the American Companies Association. We have already received the first fruits of our projects consisting of training, mentoring and free consultancy, and 3 of our companies have already started e-exports in the American market. We organize 'TOBB Türkiye Technology Meetings', where we bring together all e-commerce and e-export stakeholders, new entrepreneurs and university students, where we talk only about 'digitalization'. We have reached more than 100,000 entrepreneurs with nearly 90 events we have organized so far. We organized e-commerce trainings in all 81 provinces with the support of our chambers and exchanges affiliated to TOBB.”

Ardıç said that they implemented the “trust stamp” with the support of the Ministry of Trade in order to spread e-commerce and e-export to the base, increase the trust of consumers and for SMEs to grow safely on the internet.

Stating that they have already given trust stamps to 109 e-commerce sites, Ardıç said, “The trust stamp is an application designed to establish a secure environment where consumers will feel safer. We audit the technical infrastructure of these sites. In fact, we guide these sites on how an ideal e-commerce site should be. As a result of our evaluations, we accredit them.”

- Number of e-Commerce users increased from 68,000 to 548,000

Gürsel Baran, President of Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO), pointed out that the world is experiencing an accelerating change process after the pandemic and said:

“We started doing trade and exports over the internet before many years had passed since we started using the internet. Digitalization and the development of new ones every day, especially in information technologies, have caused many activities to shift to the digital field. One of these is trade. Considering the breadth of the segments it affects and appeals to, perhaps one of the most important ones is to conduct trade electronically. The advantage of e-commerce for sellers is that the customer base is wider, operating costs are lower, 24/7 operation and access to global markets.”

Emphasizing that e-commerce and e-export bring many advantages, but that there is a much greater competitive environment, Baran said, “When you trade in the physical field, your customers and competitors are limited, but when you do e-commerce, the whole world can be your customer as well as your competitor. Data security, logistics and delivery problems are among the important problems of this new world. We all have to follow the direction the world is going. The world is going in one direction and you have to evolve in that direction. Therefore, you have to know the rules of the business and fulfill the requirements.”

Baran, in 2019, 68,000 people in Türkiye in e-commerce, this number is currently 548,000, stating that this number has increased to 548,000, noted the following: “While there was an e-commerce volume of 136 billion liras in 2019, this is around 800 billion liras by the end of 2022. When we look at these figures, we have really come a long way. As ATO, we are in an effort to solve all the problems of our members in terms of needs, trainings, e-commerce and e-export in this field as in every field.”

Stating that they started e-export and e-commerce mobilization during the pandemic, Baran reported that they provided free software to their members during this period, created e-commerce and e-export infrastructure and provided consultancy support. Baran said, “While the number of e-commerce companies in Ankara was around 6,000 before the pandemic, it increased to 44,000 figures by the end of 2022.”

- E-commerce training plan in 8 provinces

Merter Özdemir, Senior Manager of e-Commerce Center AŞ, also gave information about e-export trainings. Stating that the first of these trainings was held in Ankara, Özdemir noted that these events were planned in 8 cities including İstanbul, Bursa, İzmir and Gaziantep.

Pointing out the importance of e-export, Özdemir added that Türkiye should be selling something to the world in many areas from products to services, from consultancy to tickets.

In the program, panels and presentations were made on the importance of e-export in Türkiye, state supports and studies carried out in our country on e-export. On the second day of the program, participants will be given e-export strategies training consisting of nine sections.