Business

Turkey surpasses many countries in online shopping

Due to the epidemic, schools, working life, sports activities, and entertainment activities, as well as shopping habits, have positively supported the growth of the e-commerce sector.

Esra Suzme, Deputy General Manager of Marketing at n11.com (CMO), stating that they have surpassed many countries in terms of online shopping rates since March 2020, said, “41 of every 100 consumers who changed their shopping habits stated that after the coronavirus epidemic, the frequency of shopping on the internet increased, and again 49 out of every 100 consumers stated that this habit will not change in the medium and long term.”

The new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic negatively affected some industries, while others stood out. Especially, e-commerce platforms established with the increase of digitalization attracted attention during the epidemic process with their ability to adapt quickly to innovations.

Due to the epidemic, schools, working life, sports activities, and entertainment activities, as well as shopping habits moved into houses, positively supporting the growth of the e-commerce market.

Esra Suzme, CMO of n11.com, who made an assessment to the AA reporter on the issue, stated that with the epidemic, an unprecedented process was entered in both economic and social terms and that almost every sector was significantly affected by this process. And added saying, due to the change in lifestyle, the online retail industry is one of the rare sectors positively affected by this process.

She stated that the results of Nielsen’s report titled ‘The Rise of E-Commerce in the Covid-19 Period’, published in May 2020, showed that e-commerce sales grew 160% in the first three weeks of the isolation process compared to the same period of the previous year. And according to the data announced by the Interbank Card Center (BKM) in the first half of 2020, she reminded that approximately 5 million purchases were made with new in March and April.

Suzme stated that there is an opinion that the impact of the epidemic on the e-commerce sector will be permanent, considering the developments in Turkey and global scale, sales figures and consumer trends.

Explaining that they anticipate that the new shopping habits gained later will continue, Esra Suzme made the following evaluations:

“One of the most important reasons for this was that people who had never shopped online before and had met with e-commerce relatively compulsively during the pandemic period began to see the benefits and comfort of e-commerce. The consumer can find the opportunity to compare dozens of different products within minutes, and can easily bring the desired product to the living space and home. When they do not like it, they can easily return it. In addition, the fact that activities such as work, entertainment, school, and sports are brought home, as well as the shopping concept, supports growth positively.”

“Our registered members exceeded 22 million”

Esra Suzme stated that the epidemic has changed the shopping habits in Turkey and globally, and the tendency to shop on the internet has increased more in the process of social isolation and afterwards, and added saying, “We have left many countries behind in the rates of online shopping since March 2020. 41 out of every 100 consumers who changed their shopping habits stated that the frequency of shopping on the internet increased after the coronavirus epidemic, and 49 out of every 100 consumers stated that this habit will not change in the medium and long term. “

Suzme said that the main priority of consumers in the age group of 60 and over is accessing food and hygiene products, together with restrictions on going out for people over 65 years of age and those with chronic diseases, who are at the top of the risk group. Esra said, “If we are to make a general evaluation, we have added 21 thousand new SMEs and over 1 million new users to our platform in March, April, and May of 2020. Our number of registered members exceeded 22 million. This increase continued in all areas with the ‘11.11 Discount Show of the Year’ held in November. In December, our customers’ interest in n11.com and our more than 200 thousand business partners continued rapidly.”

She stated that businesses that could not open their physical stores with the curfews during the social isolation process started to make their sales on the internet, saying “It is predicted that the online retail, which has a 6.2% share in the total retail in 2019, will increase to 8.5% in 2020. In terms of the development of n11.com, while there was a significant increase in the total number of people shopping on our platform during this period, the number of first-time shoppers increased by up to 80%.

“Basic needs and hygiene products have been the most-shopped products”

Suzme stated that as consumers stay at home, a significant part of their needs started to be met on the internet, “In addition to first-time purchases, the frequency of monthly re-purchases increased. In this process, basic needs and hygiene products were the products that increased the most. There was a large increase in the categories of home life and personal life. For example, during the social isolation period between March and May, the demand for bread making machines increased 14 times, and hair and beard clippers increased 11 times compared to the same period of the previous year.”

Stating that camping equipment is almost among the best selling products in the summer season, Suzme stated that since September 2020, there has been an intense interest in computers and tablets due to the fact that education is online, and that products related to computers, tablets, and printers, in short, home education, have come to the fore with the epidemic.

“We aim to open our SMEs to the world”

Suzme stated that, as the e-commerce sector, they run their business completely through an online system, therefore they can easily be integrated into the current process, and as n11.com, they are one of the first companies to switch to a full-staff home working system after coronavirus cases were seen in Turkey.

Suzme stated that their priority in this process is to ensure the health of employees and business partners and to deliver the needs and requests of millions of users who spend this difficult process at home in the shortest and most accurate way. “For this, our teams strive to be faster and more solution-oriented than ever before. As a result of this situation, we increased the capacity of our call center and made infrastructure investments in order to meet the demands. We create in-site referrals and campaigns so that our users who prefer our platform can easily find their basic needs on the site.”

Suzme stated that they carry the trainings they organize online to prepare SMEs they include in the open market ecosystem for the future and to guide their business partners in their digitalization journey, and continued as follows:

“We held online training meetings every weekday throughout 2020. In this context, we conducted 344 online trainings and a total of 41 thousand 311 business partners participated in all of our trainings. This period was a period in which we developed our online training content and scope in order for our business partners to take a stronger place in e-commerce. We have not left our SMEs alone in this great change process in retail trade and providing more than 70% of total employment. From the first day, we took an active role in the solidarity campaign “We Are With SMEs As E-Commerce”, which was implemented by the Ministry of Trade.”

We provided online support service for the continuity of the commercial activities of SMEs. During the social isolation process, we developed many required online commerce solutions and implemented various special discounts and campaigns. We have structured 7 Store Support Points in 6 provinces, which always serve our business partners, to serve over the phone and online during the pandemic period. We reduced our payment term, which has been 7 days for years, to 3 days between April 11 and September 1, 2020. Currently, our payment term application continues as 7 days.”

Esra Suzme stated that, as n11.com, they aim to make the businesses of businesses that prefer themselves in e-commerce activities a little easier, and in this context, they have implemented many projects to improve the e-commerce ecosystem since the day they were established.

Suzme explained that n11.com is the first e-commerce company that organizes trainings in all provinces of Turkey, opens regional offices and store support points, and launches the Store Support Center (magazadestek.n11.com), a digital training and support platform. “Our primary goal is to support and develop our business partners in the upcoming period. We witnessed that many companies, which are included in the open market business model of n11.com and made small sales in the first periods, have made sales of million TL today. We aim to increase these success stories and open our SMEs to the world.”

Source: AA / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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