Yabancı’s Guide for online shopping

There are a few websites like Amazon in Turkey. Delivery takes 1-2 days and is often free! Here are a few tricks to find what you need online without having to wait for the diplomatic bag!

HEPSIBURADA is the Turkish equivalent of Amazon.

HEPSI (Everything) BURADA (Here) has been around since 1998 and is the most popular website for online shopping in Turkey.It offers products from different sellers and the price is often less than what you would pay in shopping malls.

Whether you are looking for tech, kitchen appliances, dishes, cables, sports goods, shoes or a new electric toothbrush, you will probably find it for a lower price on Hepsiburada.

There is a mobile app for your phone or tablet. The App in Turkish only.I mostly use their website and by using the Chrome Browser, it is automatically translated into English.

I ordered around 40 items in the past year. I had to return 2 products, and the process was easy using Google translate.The shipping takes normally 1 or 2 days and is free over 50TL or pretty affordable (7-8 TL).

TIPS : 

•  Instead of doing wide searches I often find exactly what I want in Google and then I search for the product name using HEPSIBURADA’s search engine.
• It’s easy to get a Fatura to claim your VAT! When you add your address, add it as a business (normal Turkish citizen don’t need Faturas) The important fields are your name, surname as it appears on your Kimlik and TCKN/VKN : (Your Kimlik number goes here). You will receive the Fatura with your product (often directly on the box in a plastic) or an eFatura by email.

N11.com is the 2nd most popular website for online shopping. It belongs to Doğuş Holding A.Ş. a company that also owns Garanti banks and several media including National Geographic Turkey.

It works like HepsiBurada or Amazon, once again the apps are in Turkish but you can translate the website on Chrome easily.

You can also get a Fatura with your purchase, you enter your Kimlik # in your account information with your address.

A lot of brands or stores also allow you to buy online! Shipping is cheap or free and really quick. I ordered several things directly from the stores’ website.

How to Pay?

I’ve been using my Canadian Credit Cards in the past year for a lot of purchases, but paying with foreign credit cards online can be difficult. If you can’t pay with your Canadian Credit card here are a few options :

• You can pay with your Turkish Bank account, I use my Garanti Bank debit card (it is also a MasterCard).
• If I want to make a big purchase and don’t have enough TL in my Garanti Bank account, I use TransferWise to do an IBAN transfer. I talked about TransferWise in this blog post.