Amazon takes slice of Turkish e-commerce delight

The e-commerce market leader Amazon has strengthened its foothold in Turkey – traditionally the ‘crossroads of Europe and Asia’ – by announcing it is to acquire a stake in the Istanbul-based e-commerce retailer Ciceksepeti.com. This follows its first tentative step into the Turkish market with Hiref, a handcraft design retailer, which was the first non-EU trader to sell on the amazon.co.uk site.

Ciceksepeti, Turkish for ‘flower basket’, was founded in 2001 by Turkish entrepreneur Emre Aydin and delivers flowers and other gift items anywhere in Turkey. Its website receives 15,000 hits per day, which translates into 2,000 daily orders.
It operates with the assistance of a network of more than 150 partner flower shops. According to technology blog VentureBeat, Turkey’s rapidly growing e-commerce market turned over $10.6 billion in the first six months of 2011, compared with $16.3 billion for the whole of 2010.

The proposed investment, which was brokered by Belgian-based Hummingbird Ventures, has yet to receive Turkish governmental approval.


Source: E-commercefacts.com