Enjoying a continuous upward trend particularly thanks to the intense interest of young people and working women, Turkey's e-commerce sector gained 2.9 million new customers last year, according to a survey by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

The overall number of customers in the online shopping sector surpassed 20 million.

According to TurkStat's Household Information Technology Use Survey, the rate of those who ordered or purchased goods and services over the internet increased to 34.1% in 2019 from 29.3% in 2018.

Güçlü Kayral, co-founder of Avantajix.com, which pays cash to shoppers from nearly 500 virtual stores, recalled that the research was conducted on 60 million people between the ages of 16 and 74.

"The 4.8% increase covers 2.88 million people. When the percentage figures of TurkStat are converted into the number of people, it reveals that the number of e-commerce customers increased to 20.046 million in 2019 from 17.58 million in 2018. While 38.3% of men shopped online, this rate was 29.9% for women," said Kayral.

He said TurkStat also researches products and services purchased by consumers on the internet and that clothing is the item purchased most.

According to the survey, 67.2% of consumers buy clothing at least once a year via the internet, while 31.7% arrange holiday getaways and travel reservations, 27.4% shop for food services and online markets, 26.9% purchase household goods, 20.3% electronic devices and 20.2% books, magazines and newspapers (including e-books).

Kayral added that medicine, insurance, event tickets, games and software are among the products purchased intensively via the internet.

Pointing out that the number of e-commerce customers is significantly increasing every year due to its advantages, Kayral said the number of online shoppers now exceeds 20 million from 5 million in 2011.

Since there has been a significant change in the shopping habits of working women and young people in favor of digital shopping, he said they can shop from around the world 24 hours a day. "Instead of going shopping physically, they can find the most affordable products in a few seconds on comparison sites, and they can arrange holidays and events at bargain prices by using opportunity sites," he said.