Hepsiburada's 'Online Bazaar' wooing Turkish shoppers

"Online Bazaar," a new investment by Turkey's Hepsiburada.com, a market leader in the country's online retail sector, has attracted great interest from users since being launched in early 2016.

More than 2,000 stores have applied to be part of the application, according to Hanzade Do?an Boyner, the executive chairwoman of Hepsiburada.com. 

"We started trials in 2015 but only fully started operations in 2016. Currently we have more than 2,000 stores registered and this figure is increasing steadily," said Do?an Boyner. 

At Online Bazaar, stores can sell whichever product they wish to by registering to and using the infrastructure of the Hepsiburada.com platform, while buyers can compare and buy a wide variety of products under the guarantee of Hepsiburada.com. 

Do?an Boyner said a new payment system had been established with the new initiative, licensed by Turkey's Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), as well as a new cargo company aiming to better serve consumers. 

"Speed is very important in e-commerce. The product needs to be there at the requested date and time. So rather than relying on established cargo companies with old systems, we decided to make our own investment," she said. 

Do?an Boyner said both of these new systems, payment and cargo, were offered to all stores that register themselves at the Online Bazaar platform, in order to smooth the sales and delivery processes. 

A $35 million logistics center has been set up in the northwestern district of Gebze as part of the process, and Do?an Boyner said more than 150,000 different products were stored there, with 1.2 million total items stored at the center. 

"If you order a desk and a pen at the same time, the system in...