E-commerce sector gathers in Turkiye's Antalya for 3-day event

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANTALYA, Turkiye (AA) - E-commerce sector players from Turkiye and abroad gathered in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city Antalya on Tuesday for a three-day meeting.

Companies and shareholders convened for the World E-commerce Forum's (Worldef) meeting, with several topics, including entrepreneurship ecosystem, global marketplaces, and new trends in retail trade and digital marketing, to be discussed.

More than 50 Turkish and foreign sector professionals will give speeches at sessions during the event, which is hosting over 1,200 participants from 35 countries.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Omer Nart, the Worldef head, said the share of the marketplaces hosted by the event in the global market is around $150 billion.

"With the pandemic, new opportunities emerged for the e-commerce sector, this event was organized to benefit from these opportunities," he added.

Nart also said the global meeting of the Worldef in the UK on Oct. 25-26 will be the first foreign event of the forum.

"The whole European e-commerce ecosystem will gather at this event," he added.

Daniel Vines, the vice president of FedEx Europe, said e-commerce is growing at a tremendous pace and creating fantastic opportunities for all people.

"To compete in this fast-evolving market, decision-makers are striving to deliver a seamless customer experience," he underlined.

- 100,000 participants target for Antalya meeting

In a press release after the opening ceremony, Nart said the London meeting will meet Turkish business people with their counterparts in the UK, which has a £700 billion ($916.8 billion) e-commerce market.

The meeting will draw some 300 Turkish firms from several e-commerce sectors, such as retailers, service providers, logistic companies, tech firms, and marketplaces, he added.

On the meeting in Antalya, he said it is hosting around 1,500 participants this year, but the figure will reach 100,000 in five years.

In a few years, Turkiye's e-export volume, which is currently at $2 billion yearly, may increase by $3-4 billion thanks to the relations with the UK, according to Nart.

Orxan Isayev, the CEO of ShopiVerse, a store provider for e-commerce firms, said the UK is a very attractive market for the Turkish e-commerce sector.

Turkish manufacturers, he said, can make low-cost but quality products and Turkish firms can integrate with British and European companies in the event in London.