Türkiye will launch its first-ever E-Commerce Week in Istanbul on Nov. 21, aiming to strengthen collaboration across the sector, showcase innovative solutions and expand the economic and social footprint of digital commerce.
Organized by the Trade Ministry with support from the Electronic Commerce Operators Association (ETİD) and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), the two-day event will take place Nov. 21-22 at the Istanbul Lutfi Kırdar Congress Center.
The gathering will bring together stakeholders from across the e-commerce ecosystem — marketplaces, SMEs, entrepreneurs, infrastructure providers and logistics companies.
Featuring panels, masterclasses, workshops, exhibitions, experience zones, S2B (startup-to-business) meetings and networking sessions, E-Commerce Week aims to help shape the country’s digital commerce vision by connecting industry professionals, investors, academics, public representatives and consumers.
Success stories from Türkiye and abroad, entrepreneurial breakthroughs, AI-driven opportunities and the effects of digital transformation will be discussed by expert speakers throughout the program.
Cagatay Yasin Karaboğa, head of the Trade Ministry’s Electronic Commerce Department, said that rapid digitalization has reshaped consumer and producer habits, enabling shopping independent of time and place.
He said e-commerce offers equal opportunities for producers and noted the scale of the industry. “When we look at 2024 statistics, Türkiye’s digital commerce ecosystem has a $90 billion volume,” he said.
“This $90 billion came from roughly 6 billion transactions, generated by 601,000 sellers. E-commerce accounts for 19.1 percent of overall trade. In other words, one out of every five commercial transactions are now e-commerce,” he added.
Karaboğa said the event will bring together sellers, marketplaces, payment institutions, logistics companies and others, and it will feature numerous panels, workshops, exhibitions and a shopping festival.
For the first time, an awards ceremony will also be held to honor leading companies in the sector.
Karaboğa also noted that, using data obtained from the Electronic Commerce Information System (ETBİS), they published the report “The Outlook of E-Commerce in Türkiye.”
“Our report includes an e-commerce compliance index through which we measured the intensity of e-commerce activities across our provinces. For those provinces with lower activity, we developed a project to strengthen e-commerce. In December, we will begin work initially in 30 provinces,” he explained.
