Türkiye's e-commerce passed 4.5 trillion lira, and three in four of its 634,000 sellers are sole proprietorships
On September 15, 2026, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat told the E-Commerce and Retail Summit in Istanbul that Türkiye's e-commerce volume passed 4.5 trillion lira in 2025, up 52.2 percent. Businesses selling online reached 634,000, and 75 percent of them are sole proprietorships. E-export support reached 638 million lira for 134 companies in eight months, with target markets set to grow from 26 to 35 countries.
Bolat presented the 2025 figures at the summit: 4.5 trillion lira, up 52.2 percent
According to the Ministry of Trade's official release, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat spoke on September 15, 2026 at the E-Commerce and Retail Summit organized by TürkMedya at Halkbank's head office in the Istanbul Finance Center, and announced that Türkiye's e-commerce volume passed 4.5 trillion lira as of 2025. Growth in lira terms was 52.2 percent; in dollar terms the volume was 115.5 billion dollars, up 29 percent. Retail e-commerce reached 2.5 trillion lira, up 52 percent. The minister said businesses engaged in e-commerce numbered 634,000 at the end of 2025: 75 percent sole proprietorships, 21 percent limited companies and 4 percent joint-stock companies, a structure he described as e-commerce spreading to the grassroots. The Ekonomim report published the same day confirms the ministry's figures one for one. The sources name no other speaker; the story rests entirely on Bolat's data.
Seven percent of GDP, 6 billion transactions and a 35-country e-export target
Bolat's other series show where e-commerce sits in the economy. Its ratio to GDP rose from 2.7 percent in 2019 to roughly 7 percent in 2025, and its share of total trade was 19.3 percent in 2025. Internet access reached 92.3 percent in 2026, and 60 percent of the population shops online. E-commerce transactions climbed from 1.36 billion in 2019 to about 6 billion in 2025, while retail transactions went from 380 million to 2 billion. On e-exports, the minister said 134 companies received 638 million lira in ministry support in the first eight months of this year, that the scheme currently covers 26 target markets, and that the first-stage aim is 35 countries. He added that a new e-export consortium model had been introduced and that 15 companies had joined. The Halkbank lending figures show the financing side: 853 billion lira across 4.76 million transactions in 24 years, 460 billion lira in the last three years, 178 billion lira in 2025 and roughly 123 billion lira across 137,000 transactions in the first eight months of 2026.
Alongside the growth table there is an inspection, dispute and legislation table
The second layer of the speech concerns the rules of a growing market. Bolat said the share of unsafe products fell from 32 percent in 2011 to 1 percent in 2025; in the first eight months of this year 322,000 companies and 39 million products were inspected, and 2.24 billion lira in administrative fines were imposed. Consumer arbitration committees concluded 2,769,000 applications between June 1, 2023 and August 31, 2026, with disputes totaling 34 billion lira. On legislation, the new Wholesale Market Law is before parliament, focuses on producer cooperatives and product pricing, and is expected to take effect in the new legislative term; no firm date was given. Read together: e-commerce is now close to a fifth of total trade, mostly small sellers, under tightening supervision. The sources give no breakdown by sector, category or province, no volume forecast for 2026, no list of the 26 countries covered by e-export support, and no application conditions for the consortium model.
What it means for businesses in Türkiye: a mature market, easy to enter, hard to stand out in
There is no boundary problem here: the data is entirely about Türkiye. What is missing is a sector or province breakdown; the minister gave national totals only. Four practical conclusions still follow. First, 60 percent of the population shops online and 634,000 businesses already sell; for an SME not yet online the question is not whether the market exists but how to be noticed in that crowd. With three in four sellers sole proprietorships, entry is cheap and competition among small sellers is dense. Second, for those who want to sell abroad, the ministry's support is a concrete channel: 638 million lira to 134 companies in eight months, a target expansion from 26 to 35 countries and a 15-member consortium model. Application conditions are not in the sources; confirm them with the ministry. Third, in a year of 39 million inspected products and 2.24 billion lira in fines, product safety compliance and return processes matter as much as the sales page; 2,769,000 arbitration applications are warning enough. Fourth, the 123 billion lira Halkbank lent to tradespeople in the first eight months of 2026 shows the financing door is open.
The UNALSOFT view
Our reading is this: in a 4.5 trillion lira market where 75 percent of sellers are sole proprietorships, the difference is made by the operation, not the product. When stock, orders, invoices and returns are not managed from one place, growth turns into complaints as it scales; the arbitration figures are the evidence. That is why the order we recommend to clients in our E-Commerce Panel work stays fixed: first gather product and stock data in a single accurate source, then connect marketplaces and your own site to it, and open e-exports only once that routine holds. The minister's 35-country target asks for the same operation repeated across markets; whoever cannot build it in one market will not build it in the second.
Sources
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