Global E-Commerce Trends and Turkey’s Unique Approach – with Hasan Önal - Ministry of Trade, Turkey

In this talk, the speaker discusses global e-commerce trends and Turkey's approach to this rapidly evolving market. They highlight significant growth in e-commerce, with predictions of a volume increase to $6 trillion by 2024, emphasizing the importance of looking at China for future commerce insights. They address the rise of social commerce, expected to exceed $1 trillion by 2028, and outline how digital marketing is reshaping brands' strategies. The speaker shares insights about Turkey's e-commerce growth, which has reached 20% of total trade, facilitated by government support and innovative platforms designed to help exporters. They introduce the 'e-export consortium' model, inspired by China's successful expansion strategies, and invite attendees to explore upcoming opportunities in the field.

Hello everyone. Uh I am happy to be here as a head of export digital marketing and new disruptive technologies department at the ministry of trade and as an immigrant from Zilasa is from Bulgaria during Balkan wars. Uh my hometown is so I am very to I am very close to Balkcan culture. Uh I was commercial by the way sorry I was commercial counselor in Malaysia between 2009

and 13 and Dubai commercial atesia uh between 20 2016 and 2020. uh and also I organized the first virtual B2B meetings in crossber e-commerce in Dubai after my returning posting uh we set up e export department in the ministry of trade so also we created our policy in the ministry of trade today I would like to briefly talk about global e-commerce trends and Turkeykey's this approach. I

hope you will like it. Okay. So, just a moment. According to IMF, the world economy grow by 4% to 110 trillion dollar in 2024. By the end of 20 sorry, yes. Uh by the end of 2023, global e-commerce volume reached $5.6 trillion showing the growth with 70% increase since 20209. In 24 this volume expected to grow by another 7% and reach to 6 trillion. For overall retail

sales they are expected to grow 4% in 2024 and reach $ 31.4 The share of e-commerce in total retail sales has already passed 20%. And about half of e-commerce sales happen throughout marketplaces. China stands out as a leading country. I believe that to understand the future of commerce, we shouldn't look the west. We should look to China and we see digitalization and changing consumer habits have transformed

global trade dynamics and e-commerce has taken much bigger share of overall retail trades. What is the driving this growth beside technology transformation? Of course, technology transformation uh is a big opportunity for e-commerce, but today we spend an average of 6 hours 40 minutes per day on the online and social media alone onethird of this time. Naturally, this shift has brought digital marketing and social commerce into the

spotlight. We can say social e-commerce or social commerce will be booming in 2024. The volume of social commerce reached around $700 billion dollar. It is expected to exceed 1 trillion dollar by 2028. In Asia, it means China. One of every two people engaged in and in Brazil are seeing strong influence from social media. This reshaping Is there any problem? Ah okay. Okay. This transformation also reshaping digital

marketing and payment methods. Today over 70 of all marketing expenses coming from digital. By 2030, this is expected to rise 90% and $1 trillion. In terms of digital payment platforms like PayPal, Alip Pay, WeChat are leading the way and web three technologies are also expected to further enhance digital payment solution adding even greater value. Even if you run business with the traditional model, it means B2B uh

or general custom regulations, you cannot escape the digital because you need to promote your products in digital area. So let's take a quick look at the gamechanging world of e-commerce. Actually uh I like this presentation to show the future of the trends. Today it is about the logistic and autonomous fast delivery and you you in US already they use drones for logistic solutions. AI will be gamechanging

now with we are in generative AI and AI is soon maybe we are living AI already AI will be game changer for us personalization and digital experience will lead the way may I ask you who still read paper news at home paper newspaper gazetta at Nobody. Yeah. So retail go through out to similar transformation and physical stores will turn into experience stores. Uh maybe you can check

Nika. So Nike stores already produce customized and personalized products and Nike stores already experienced stores in UK uh US and with 3D technologies like 3D printing and digital ownerships even logistic might be become digital. Now let's look at the Turkey. Uh between 2009 and 2023, Turkey e-commerce volume grow at compound annual growth rate of 92%. In 2023, e-commerce accounted for 20% of total trade. According to Euro

Monitor, Turkey expected to grow twice as fast as global e-commerce growth average. As I mentioned before, our export department was set up in 2022. At the time, our export was only 2 billion, but the right policies we increased to 6.4 4 billion dollar in Our goal is to is for 10% overall export to come from e-commerce and how succeeded this while determining these policies. We tried to

find out why our companies were failing or unsuccessful. Let's look at the whymemes are unsuccessfulmemes se face several challenges of course logistic times crossber e-commerce delivery co time and marketing cost also knowledge about legislation and custom and of course qualified human resource especially in Turkey it is not easy to find qualified human resources Here we especially designed some support for Turkish companies to cover their fulfillment cost

like fast delivery and returns in destination country. Uh so we solve these problems in destination areas. Also we give some supports for marketing cost for digital marketing platforms. But no matter how much support governments give the key success is following future trends and customer expectations. This verse is coming from uh Jeff Boss uh the CEO or the founder Amazon says if you follow future trends and customer

expectation and creating solution accordingly you can be successful. The best sample is Nokia. You know Nokia once upon a time. They didn't follow feature trends and customer behavior. Now nobody can use Nokia. We use iPhone and other uh mobile phones. Along with the government support, we also launched information and training platforms to help companies take the right steps. The first of these platforms, easy export platforms launched

in 2021 and focused on traditional export. These platforms support exporters take the right steps by using HS code system and a solutions. If of course this is just for Turkish companies. Turkish companies enter into the uh some um east state passport. So they can find the correct market and they can find the uh solutions step by step and AI supported. Other one easy export. Then in 2025

we launched our second platform EKIP. This time directly focused on e-commerce based on the B2C models. Through these platforms our companies can learn crossber e-commerce and digital marketing step by step. They can also use a simple tool similar to programs like Halium and Junga Scott to see how their products could see on the different global marketplaces. It they can learn easily how to do e export throughout

this platform. When we first started, we used to admire douk platforms ww.export.go, but now honestly there is no platform in the world like us. So uh I don't know if you have any Turkish citizen uh you can check our website together. We also offer clear and simple guides for our SMMES. Discover how to apply for state export in E-commerce market search for 25 countries and these 25

countries cover 95% of global e-commerce and and how to be a prompt engineer in AI tools for e-commerce trade. Additionally, we have published over 25 stepbystep guides for global and regional marketplaces. These documents are designed as quick, easy to use resources to help our companies research success faster by using behavioral public languages. We are also working closely with global marketplaces. We were almost like their Turkey office

bringing together strong e-commerce companies and supporting them open account on this platforms. We also submit our Turkish brand catalog just for these marketplaces. One of the best example is Walmart and up to now more than 200 Turkish companies can manage the open accounts. Walmarts you saw our support. We give some states incentives. We give we created some platforms. We prepare guidelines. But no matter how many support

programs or training programs uh platforms you offer, if your suppliers are not ready for e export or crossber e-commerce, you have to find another solution. That is why we adopted the mega merchant model. We call it e export consortium which China use to help itsmemes expand abroad. So we adapted our model. Through this EA export consortia or mega merchant model authorized by the ministry of and they

can now offer end to end solutions to Turkish suppliers, Turkish brands on international marketplaces. How they support with consignment sales model? The product the products they purchased mega merchant can purchase be sold directly through their account mega merchant account on This model also become a popular and well accepted by global marketplaces because they don't want to uh try withmemes one by one. So what they need Turkish

products from Turkey. So they can select the products and they can contact our mega merchant. Mega merchant companies collect these products frommemes and they sell their account. Maybe also Bulgaria governments can use this model. So on other issues my friends uh from my head of department uh now will distribute our flyer. Uh we crowned our efforts and collaborations with the summit where global marketplaces share their experience

and come together in stumble. Uh now honor is distributing our flyers. Last year more than 30 marketplaces met with Turkish brands at this event. Uh I would like to you all to stumble global export summit which will be held on third and fourth September 2025 and at this event uh important event we will explore the future of e-commerce uh we invite international speaker some of them coming

from New York retail federations and our slogans uh today this year lead beyond borders let's shape the future e-commerce together in stumble and finally uh I would like to thank Nicola for inviting us to distinguish this event and all of you for listening speak to me patiently. Thank you.