Cenk Angin
CEO, GittiGidiyor
MILESTONES
We have been ranked as one of the fastest growing technology companies by Deloitte both in Turkey and the region. GittiGidiyor has three founders, and some other shareholders. eBay became a minority shareholder in 2007, and this can be mentioned as a milestone.
BIG SELLERS
If you look from a quantity point of view, video games are traded a lot on the site. From a volume perspective in terms of the overall value of sales, then electronic goods, clothing and accessories, and cosmetics are the biggest movers.
VISIONS
Our vision is to make people believe that e-commerce is part of their daily life. In December 2010 we had 10 million unique visitors to the site, who made a total of 20 million visits. This equates to over 200 million visits yearly. The department chain store Boyner experiences around 35 million walk-ins over a year. This gives you an idea of the traffic we have. We do not define our business as “online“ or “offline“—we simply want to be the busiest shopping point.
Burak ErtaÅŸ
CEO, Sahibinden.com
TRUST BUILDING
In addition to classifieds, we have a platform that brings together buyers and sellers, where buyers can purchase goods with their credit cards. I believe our success comes primarily from the user experience and the trust built over years in our brand. Our platform allows buyers to find what they are looking for, and sellers to post their products easily.
THE MIX
Our site is mostly known and used for real estate, either renting or buying, and also for cars. We are also number one in several other categories. In industry and heavy equipment we have close to 40,000 listings for factory equipment, engines, excavators, construction vehicles, and so on. We also have a large retail segment.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Right now, the overall number of internet users is around 28 million. With 50% of the population below 29 years of age the penetration rate is expected to increase. Around 3 million people use e-commerce platforms to purchase goods online, so by our estimates we could expect growth of between 8 and 10 times.
Emre Ekmekçİ
General Manager, Emre Ekmekçİ
TIPPING THE BALANCE
About 75% of our customers are female. This is unique because most Turkish e-commerce was dominated by male buyers before Groupon. We have proved that women can embrace online shopping, although we do also have a considerable number of male shoppers.
HAND AND FOOT
In Turkey, a lot of emphasis is put on customer service generally, and when you walk into a store it is normal to be followed and waited on. We must then transfer this expectation into the online shopping world.
SWITCHING STRATEGIES
US Groupon sells a voucher for $40 worth of anything for $20. When we tried that here it did not sell as well as when you define what that $40 can buy for you. The customer here was suspicious of that deal. We therefore switched our strategy to make what our customers were buying more obvious and restrictive.
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