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65% of its member firms have applied to the government to benefit from the short work allowance scheme.
4.4.3 Retail sector dynamics
Turkey’s retail sales volume in April was more or less flat, edging down 0.2% y/y.
Spending with credit cards and debit cards in Turkey inched up to Turkish lira (TRY) 15.2bn (€2bn) in the week ending April 17 from TRY13.5bn a week earlier.
The figures contrasted with the data recorded at the end of March when spending with the cards plunged 31% w/w.
The latest data showed that people have mostly been using their credit and debit cards for regular shopping, a trend driven no doubt by households ordering groceries online amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in order to stay away from crowds and a higher chance of contracting an infection. The volume of regular shopping with credit and debit cards increased to TRY5.3bn as of April 17 from the pre-coronavirus outbreak level of TRY3.5bn.
The weekly average spending with the cards on clothing items stood at TRY1.5bn before the outbreak, but then dropped to TRY370mn. But there was a recovery to TRY483mn in the week ending April 17.
The sharpest decline was recorded in the air travel segment, again hardly surprising given that the pandemic has led to the cancellation of all domestic and international flights. Spending in this segment averaged around TRY600mn on a weekly basis before the outbreak but dropped to as low as TRY40mn thereafter. Spending on accommodation fell to TRY40mn/week from TRY250mn before the outbreak.
E-commerce sales in Turkey grew a robust 39% in 2019 to reach Turkish lira (TRY) 83bn (€11bn), according to data from business group TUBISAD.
The share of online sales in the retail industry’s overall revenues moved up to 6.2% last year from 5.3% in 2018, the figures also showed. Online retail sales were up 43% to TRY45bn while online travel and holiday sales expanded 32% to TRY30.2bn
In the clothing segment, online sales rose by 40% to TRY3.5bn while the home furniture and furbishing segment exhibited a 33% increase to TRY1.7bn.
29 TURKEY Country Report June 2020 www.intellinews.com
