More Turkish women are running their own businesses through Instagram, advertising and selling their handmade or atelier work on their accounts.
Social media has led to a boom in the e-trade industry over the last few years with the arrival of new business fields. Some sell their handmade cookies or cakes while others engage in home decoration, accessories, women's wear and organic products.
Gözde Kristal is one of these female entrepreneurs selling homemade chocolate on her Instagram account @choc_choc_choco. After graduating from the International Relations Department at Bilkent University, Kristal worked at international agencies for six years but her chocolate passion led her to run her own business. She took courses on chocolate making. "Instagram helps me to reach larger audiences and I sell my chocolates especially made for weddings, baby shower parties and birthdays," she said, adding that she is planning to open an atelier where she can give classes and work.
Another female entrepreneur is Arzu Gençoğlu, who has specialized in cakes for the last four years and runs her business via her social media account "Arzunun pasta günlüğü." Gençoğlu also wants to open a cafe for cake workshops and birthday parties.
Aside from cooking, some female entrepreneurs are attracting customers with their design products. Pelin Özfırıncı designs shoes and sells them on Instagram. Due to large demand, she established her own design atelier and began her e-trade business "Pelin'in Ayakkabıları."
Seyhun Özkara, the general manager of IdeaSoft, an e-trade company, said that Instagram has quadrupled the number of female entrepreneurs. "Instagram has become an important platform for e-trade. Some female entrepreneurs have become very successful and expanded their business outside after starting on Instagram," Özkara said. Sanem Oktar, the president of Turkey's Women Entrepreneurs Association (KAGİDER), said that 20 percent of their members run their business via Instagram. "The home-office is becoming a more common trend both in Turkey and abroad. These women create a virtual world themselves and engage in a field that they want to pursue in the future," Oktar concluded.
