E-commerce is commerce conducted over the internet. It covers not only the sale of physical products but also digital services, subscriptions and software; the buyer and seller never meet in person, and the order and payment are completed online. In Türkiye, volume is measured by the Ministry of Trade: in 2025, e-commerce volume rose to 4.567 trillion TL and the number of transactions to 5.94 billion. The same report put retail e-commerce volume at 2.46 trillion TL and e-commerce's share of gross domestic product at 6.9% (Ministry of Trade data, May 2026).
The legal basis of the term is clear in Turkish legislation: the framework for electronic commerce is set by Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce, which entered into force on May 1, 2015. The law defines two roles. A business selling from its own website is a service provider, while a marketplace that brings sellers together is an intermediary service provider. The distinction looks minor on paper but changes your obligations in practice: if you sell on a marketplace, you answer to the platform's rules; if you sell on your own site, you answer directly to the law.
How does e-commerce work?
An order passes through five stages: storefront, cart, payment, fulfillment and delivery. On the storefront side, the product page shows the price, stock status and shipping time. At the payment step, a virtual POS (a system that collects card payments online) or a payment institution comes into play; the money usually reaches the seller's account not instantly but at the end of a settlement period. Fulfillment and delivery are where most new sellers underestimate the work, because this is where packaging, shipping integration and the returns process are set up.
Most of the flow before and after the sale is connected through software integrations: order information goes to accounting, stock information to the warehouse and the tracking number to the customer automatically. A store running without integrations can cope with up to 5–10 orders a day; as volume grows, manual tracking starts producing errors. Negotiated rates with shipping companies are also a matter of volume: at low volume you pay retail rates, and as your monthly shipment count rises, the shipping cost per unit falls. That is why unit costs in the first months are higher than those of a mature store, and if pricing does not account for this, the profit margin melts away.
What business models are there?
Models are distinguished by who sells to whom. In Türkiye, most new sellers start with B2C, but in terms of basket size and payment terms, B2B is a very different game. The table below shows how the four main models differ.
| Model | Who sells to whom | Typical example | Defining feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2C | Business to consumer | Online store, marketplace sales | Small baskets, high volume |
| B2B | Business to business | Wholesale portal, dealer system | Large baskets, deferred payment |
| C2C | Consumer to consumer | Second-hand listing platforms | Platform intermediation required |
| D2C | Manufacturer to consumer | The brand's own website | Margin without intermediaries, own traffic |
There is also a distinction based on how products are sourced. You hold your own stock, the manufacturer ships on your behalf (dropshipping) or you have the product manufactured yourself. Dropshipping is marketed as "e-commerce without capital"; the reality on the ground is narrower: the capital requirement drops, but so does the profit margin, and responsibility for returns and delays still lies with the seller. A supplier's stock error lowers your store's rating. The model should be chosen based on the balance between the capital you have and the operational load you can bear.
What do you need to get started?
The legal setup comes before the website. Under the Ministry of Trade's regulations, service providers and intermediary service providers in Türkiye must register with the Electronic Commerce Information System (ETBİS) before starting operations. The administrative fine for individuals and private legal entities that fail to register ranges from 79,230 TL to 396,150 TL. The steps proceed in this order:
- Register for tax: complete the setup of a sole proprietorship or limited company with your accountant and have online sales added to your business activity code.
- Complete your ETBİS registration: registration is done through e-Devlet (Türkiye's e-government portal) and must be completed before you start selling.
- Set up payment infrastructure: apply to a bank for a virtual POS or sign an agreement with a payment institution; ask for the commission rate and settlement period in writing.
- Arrange shipping: talk to at least two companies and compare their price lists based on desi (the volumetric weight unit used by Turkish carriers) and their return shipping fees.
- Publish the mandatory contract texts: the distance sales contract, preliminary information form, return and delivery terms and privacy notice must be accessible on the site.
Two of these steps are often skipped. The first is that ETBİS registration must be done before selling; the "I'll sell first and sort it out later" approach is a direct risk of a fine. The second is the settlement period in the payment institution agreement: a period ranging from 7 to 30 days directly determines your cash flow, and you need to build your restocking plan around it.
How do you set up a sales website?
There are three routes: selling on a marketplace, renting a ready-made platform or building your own site. A marketplace gives you ready-made traffic, but in return it takes a commission that varies by category and does not share customer data. A ready-made platform works on a monthly subscription, with technical maintenance handled by the provider. Your own site gives you the most control; installing WooCommerce on WordPress is the most common form of this route and leaves every setting, from design to payment integration, up to you.
The deciding criteria are volume and the need for control. For a business with fewer than 50 orders a month, the effort invested in its own site usually does not pay off; a marketplace provides a fast start. Once monthly orders reach three digits, commission costs begin to exceed the total cost of running your own site, and the brand wants to build its own channel. Running both channels together is also possible: marketplace sales feed cash flow while your own site accumulates brand equity and customer data. If you do not want your own channel's traffic to remain dependent on the ad budget, your product and category pages need to be visible in search engines; we explain how to set this up in detail in our e-commerce SEO guide.
What sells online?
Category choice is made where profit margin and return rate intersect. Demand is high in clothing and footwear, but size-related returns push the rate up; in electronics, basket sizes are large but margins are thin, and the warranty process adds operational load. Cosmetics, home textiles and hobby products work with mid-range margins. Digital products have no shipping or return costs, which is why e-books, courses and software subscriptions scale with little operational effort.
Prohibited and regulated products are a separate topic: in categories such as medicines, medical devices, dietary supplements and alcoholic beverages, sales are subject to permits, notification or an outright ban. Checking the regulations for a product before committing to a category removes the risk of having your store shut down later. When calculating margin, you also need to add shipping, commission, payment fees, packaging and a returns allowance to the product cost; profit calculated without these items comes out well above actual profit.
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
The gains come down to reach and cost structure. A physical store is limited to its city, while an online store sells nationwide, rent and in-store staff costs disappear, and sales data becomes measurable. When you can see how many times each product was viewed and at which step carts were abandoned, pricing and stock decisions rest on data instead of guesswork.
- Advantage: no geographic limits, 24/7 sales, low fixed costs, measurable customer behavior.
- Advantage: easy testing; you can try a new product in a small batch and gauge demand.
- Disadvantage: competition and advertising costs; customer acquisition cost is under upward pressure every year.
- Disadvantage: returns and shipping operations are the items that eat directly into margin.
- Disadvantage: a heavy load of legal obligations; registration, contracts and consumer rights require constant attention.
The right of withdrawal is the provision that affects this balance most. Under Turkish consumer law, in distance contracts the consumer can withdraw within 14 days without giving a reason, and the seller must refund the price within 14 days of receiving the withdrawal notice (Ministry of Trade consumer guide). This period is a cost item for the seller: whether a returned product can be resold varies by category, and the return rate in fashion is markedly higher than in other categories.
Where do new sellers make the most mistakes?
The most expensive mistake happens in pricing. A store that adds a profit on top of the product cost and starts selling grows revenue in the first month while losing money, because it has not accounted for commission and shipping. The second common mistake is dependence on a single channel: if all sales come from one marketplace, a rule change or a decision to close the store on that platform can wipe out the business's revenue overnight.
The third is a lack of measurement. Most new sellers who spend on advertising do not know which campaign sold which product, because conversion tracking has not been set up. Spending without tracking can't be repeated, because you can't tell what worked from what didn't. The fourth is growth that is entirely dependent on advertising: if traffic drops to zero when the ads stop, the store has no organic channel of its own, and customer acquisition cost never comes down. At the corporate scale, fixing this picture means building search and content as a separate channel; the scope is defined on our SEO packages page.
A roadmap for e-commerce
The order is: legal setup first, then channel selection, and growth last. ETBİS registration and tax registration are completed before selling; these two are not optional but obligations with defined penalties. The criterion for the channel decision is volume: when monthly order numbers are low, a marketplace gives you a fast start, and at three-digit volumes your own site turns commission costs into profit.
Pricing is determined not by product cost but by total cost: a price set without including commission, shipping, payment fees, packaging and a returns allowance is misleading. Model choice also depends on the balance between capital and operational load; dropshipping reduces the capital needed, but it also reduces margin and control. The size of the Turkish market provides a foundation for selling, but an annual volume increase of 52.2% means competition is growing at the same pace. The stores that last in this market are the ones that do not depend on a single channel and that put measurement in place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is tax registration mandatory for e-commerce?
Any sale carried out on a continuous basis with the aim of profit is taxable, so tax registration is set up before opening a store. Setting up a sole proprietorship is the fastest route and can be completed with an accountant within a few days. Online sales must be added to your business activity code; a missing code causes problems when applying for a virtual POS.
How much capital do you need to start e-commerce?
The starting budget depends on the chosen model. When selling stocked products on a marketplace, the biggest item is purchasing inventory; with a ready-made platform it is the monthly subscription, and with your own site it is setup and design costs. When planning the budget, advertising and shipping costs for the first three months must also be included, because sales revenue arrives with a delay due to the settlement period.
Which is better: a marketplace or your own site?
A marketplace provides ready-made traffic immediately and leaves you no technical burden, but it takes a commission and does not share customer data. Your own site leaves customer data and brand control with you, but you have to generate traffic yourself. As monthly order volume increases, commission costs grow, so the second option comes out ahead mathematically.
Is dropshipping really profitable?
Dropshipping reduces the capital requirement, and it reduces the profit margin too. Because you do not hold the product yourself, the risk of stock and shipping errors depends on the supplier, but responsibility toward the customer stays with the seller. Managing delays and returns is harder in this model; the store's rating becomes dependent on the supplier's performance.
When should ETBİS registration be completed?
Registration is completed before you start selling. The obligation covers both service providers selling from their own sites and intermediary service providers acting as marketplaces. The application is made through e-Devlet, and the business information must match the website information. Turkish legislation defines administrative fines for those who fail to meet the registration and notification obligations.
