TürkMedya’s E-Commerce and Retail Summit was held at Halkbank Headquarters in the Istanbul Financial Center, with the participation of Trade Minister Ömer Bolat. Bolat said protectionism has negatively affected the global economy following the pandemic, wars, crises and disruptions in supply chains. He noted that global growth is expected to decline from an average of 3.4% in 2024-2025 to 3% this year, while growth in global trade is expected to fall from 4.6% to 1.6%. He said that as of 2026, internet usage in Türkiye stands at 92.3%, while the rate of online ordering is 60%. According to ETBIS data, e-commerce volume rose by 52.2% in 2025, exceeding 4.5 trillion lira, and increased by 29% in dollar terms to surpass 115.5 billion dollars. Retail e-commerce reached 2.5 trillion lira, while the number of transactions approached 6 billion. E-commerce accounted for approximately 7% of GDP and 19.3% of overall trade.
Why it matters
The anticipated marked slowdown in global trade coinciding with the rapid expansion of e-commerce in Türkiye is increasing the importance of digital channels for companies and consumers. The share of people placing orders online and the approximately 6 billion transactions show that the issue concerns not only major platforms but also retailers, payment and logistics processes, and a broad segment of online shoppers. E-commerce’s share of 19.3% in overall trade and approximately 7% of GDP indicates that the sector can no longer be regarded as a secondary sales channel. The difference between the growth rates in lira and dollar terms also means that both measures need to be monitored together when assessing the expansion in volume.
Background
Turkey is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we published 59 news stories mentioning this name; the latest is dated September 15, 2026.