Turkey’s digital trade balance is shifting rapidly. Cross‑border e‑imports have surged to record levels despite tighter restrictions on overseas online shopping, business daily Ekonomi has reported.

According to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM) as cited by the publication, in the first seven months of 2025, the number of e‑import transactions made with domestic cards on foreign e‑commerce platforms rose 22.5% y/y to nearly 210mn.

In the same period, e‑export transactions — purchases made on Turkish e‑commerce sites with foreign cards — fell 24.7% y/y to 17.2mn. This means the e‑import transaction volume exceeded the e‑export transaction volume by more than 12-fold.

The figures highlight Turkish consumers’ growing appetite for low‑cost overseas platforms such as China's online marketplace Temu and e-commerce fast fashion giant Shein. The trend continues to put pressure on the market shares held by domestic e‑commerce players.

In value terms, e‑exports reached Turkish lira (TRY) 106bn ($2.56bn) in the January–July period, up 11.5% from a year earlier, the reported data showed. E‑imports, however, jumped 65% y/y to TRY 189bn from TRY 114bn, widening the gap.

For all of 2024, e‑imports totalled TRY 217bn versus TRY 158bn for e‑exports.

The surge in e‑imports comes despite stricter measures that apply to Turks’ cross‑border online shopping. Not only has Turkey implemented tighter customs controls, similar moves in other countries and global restrictions — particularly targeting China‑based marketplaces like Temu — have been rolled out in quick succession.

In Turkey, online purchases from abroad with a value of up to €30 that are non-commercial and intended for personal use are currently exempt from customs duties. For orders exceeding this limit, a fixed tax is applied depending on the country of origin. The tax is 30% on goods arriving from European Union countries and 60% on those from other countries.

In terms of transaction volume, the share of cross‑border purchases within Turkey’s total online shopping was 10.39% in the first seven months of 2024, rising to 12.26% in the same period this year, Ekonomi said. In value terms, the ratio increased from 4.77% in 2024 to 4.80% this year.

Over the same period, e‑exports accounted for 1.8% of total transaction volume and 2.76% of total transaction value, the media outlet added.