President of ATSO, Bahar: ‘We are determined to make Antalya the capital of e-commerce’

Speaking after the announcement of Turkey E-Commerce Statistics, ATSO President Ali Bahar stated that ‘The e-commerce volume in Turkey reached 1 trillion 850 billion TL in 2023, increasing by 115%. This numerical development once again demonstrates how important e-commerce, which accounts for 6.8% of GDP, is alongside traditional methods and the importance of digitalization.’ According to the e-commerce statistics for 2023 announced by the Ministry of Trade, the ratio of e-commerce volume to the general trade volume in Turkey increased from 10.1% in 2019 to 20.3% in 2023. Evaluating the increase in the ratio of e-commerce volume to the general trade volume, which reached 6.8% of Gross Domestic Product (E-GDP), by 33.3% compared to the previous year, President Ali Bahar of Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO) said, ‘The e-commerce volume, which was 800 billion TL in 2022, increased by 115.15% in 2023, reaching 1 trillion 850 billion TL. The total e-commerce volume in 2020, the year the pandemic started, was 226 billion TL, showing an 8-fold increase in the last 3 years.’
‘5.5% of the total volume in Turkey’
President Bahar, emphasizing that e-commerce and remote sales method has always been an existing and used tool, stated, ‘Especially with the pandemic process, it has become quite popular. This situation has made it mandatory for many of our businesses to adapt to the process quickly. We at ATSO have always been aware of this change and innovation, and we are doing more than our best to raise awareness among our members.’ President Bahar pointed out that Antalya’s e-commerce volume corresponds to 5.5% of the total trade volume in Turkey, saying, ‘Looking at the 2023 e-commerce data for Antalya, we see that a total of 101.99 billion TL e-commerce volume was realized, with 32.17 billion TL for purchases and 69.82 billion TL for sales. Of course, this figure is not sufficient, but considering that we had a 2.5-3% share in previous years, the level we have reached is promising for the future.’
Antalya 30th in E-Commerce Adaptation Index
President Bahar pointed out that the most important issue to be considered is Antalya’s position in the e-commerce adaptation index and continued his words as follows: ‘Antalya ranks thirtieth with 35.17 points in the e-commerce adaptation index, which includes subheadings such as the ratio of e-commerce businesses among total businesses in provinces, e-commerce volume per enterprise, and the ratio of e-commerce to GDP. While being fifth in e-commerce volume, our ranking thirtieth in the adaptation index is indeed thought-provoking, but we need to read the message here well. Increasing awareness on this issue, informing our members more about the contributions and benefits of e-commerce is among our future missions. We were already doing what was necessary, now we will need to do more. Our B2B networking event on May 23rd is one of the greatest proofs of how meticulously we handle the subject.’
‘Trade city Antalya’ goal
President Ali Bahar reminded that Antalya is the leader in tourism, fresh fruit and vegetable production, and exports in Turkey and said, ‘We never said these were enough. Why shouldn’t we be the leader in industry and trade as well? We are a chamber of commerce and industry with nearly 63,000 members, making us one of the four largest chambers in Turkey. Therefore, it is essential for us to be among the best in industry and trade.’ President Ali Bahar pointed out that the ATSO B2B Networking event is an important step taken to improve the trade of its members and said, ‘With the event we organized, we set a precedent within Chambers and broke a record nationwide in this field. We conducted 5,712 B2B meetings with nearly 500 participants and created a commercial cooperation value of 1 billion 36 million TL according to the feedback from the participating members.’
Networking and cooperation among members
President Ali Bahar noted that they have provided another answer to the question of what ATSO does and said, ‘There were participants following our event online from different cities of Turkey and abroad. We tried to explain that ATSO works day and night to improve the trade of its members, to increase the network and cooperation among members. We saw how successful we are in this regard. This was our first networking event supported by artificial intelligence. Participants realized that they are not substitutes or competitors but complementary elements of each other, that they are links in the same supply chain. Thus, together, we took a very important step towards developing regional trade.’