How to start an online store in Turkey (2026): requirements, paperwork, costs and platforms
What you need to sell online in Turkey in 2026: tax registration, ETBİS, distance-sales rules, KVKK, İYS and e-Arşiv invoices, plus platform costs.
To start an online store in Turkey in 2026 you need a tax registration (sole trader or company), registration with ETBİS, the Ministry of Trade’s e-commerce information system, before you start selling, an e-commerce platform, a payment provider or virtual POS, a shipping agreement, and legal texts: a pre-contract information form, a distance sales contract, a KVKK privacy notice and a cookie policy. Since 1 January 2026, sellers not yet on e-Arşiv must also issue all their invoices as e-Arşiv invoices.
On cost, paid yearly plans on Turkish store platforms cost about TRY 40,000–139,000 (€720–2,500), agency-built stores TRY 25,000–200,000 as a one-off, and custom software over TRY 200,000, plus payment commission on every sale. This guide goes through each step with official sources and the prices platforms published on 28 September 2026. Euro amounts use the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye rate of 25 September 2026 (€1 ≈ TRY 55.7).
Short answer: Register for tax first and join ETBİS before selling. Then choose a platform, sign payment and shipping agreements, and prepare your legal texts under the 2025 rule changes. For a small store, the first year typically costs TRY 50,000–150,000 in total with platform, design, product photos and commissions.
1. Company and tax registration
- Business form: a sole trader is the quickest start. Since 1 January 2024 the minimum capital is TRY 50,000 for a limited company and TRY 250,000 for a joint-stock company (Ministry of Trade).
- Home production exemption: people selling goods they make at home online can be exempt from income tax if they obtain a tradesman’s exemption certificate and collect all payments through a commercial bank account; the bank withholds 4% (2% with an employee). The 2026 annual sales cap is TRY 1,900,000 (Income Tax Law, art. 9/10).
- Young entrepreneur exemption: people under 29 registering for the first time can use an exemption for 3 years, on earnings up to TRY 400,000 for 2026. There is no general “e-commerce income exemption”.
2. ETBİS registration
Registration with the Electronic Commerce Information System (ETBİS) is mandatory before you start trading. It covers sellers on their own site, marketplaces, and Turkish sellers who sell only on foreign marketplaces. Merchants register with their MERSİS and tax numbers, tradespeople with their national ID and tax numbers; a registered e-mail (KEP) address and payment methods are reported, and changes must be updated within 30 days (Ministry of Trade).
3. Choosing a platform: SaaS or custom build?
| Platform | Yearly price (September 2026) | Key condition |
|---|---|---|
| ikas | Start free; Lift TRY 39,948, Scale TRY 69,876, Scale Plus TRY 134,388 (+VAT) | Start allows 100 products and charges 3.99% payment commission; unlimited products on higher plans |
| Ticimax | TRY 46,000–139,000 (promotional) | Unlimited products, hosting and SSL included; says it takes no commission on sales |
| T-Soft | TRY 45,000–105,000 (promotional) | Says it takes no commission on orders |
| Shopify | $19–299 a month (billed yearly) | Shopify Payments isn’t available in Turkey; with a third-party payment provider, an extra 2%–0.2% transaction fee applies depending on the plan |
Sources: ikas, Ticimax, T-Soft, Shopify and Shopify Payments countries. We couldn’t access IdeaSoft’s current pricing page, so it isn’t in the table.
Published prices for agency-built stores are one-off: TRY 25,000–80,000 with a theme and open-source platform, TRY 80,000–200,000 for customised stores, and TRY 200,000–500,000+ for custom software. On the Turkish marketplace Armut, quotes for e-commerce sites range from TRY 5,000 to TRY 42,000.
4. Payments: virtual POS and payment institutions
Payment institutions give you a quick start: iyzico, for example, publishes a commission of 4.29% + TRY 0.25 per successful transaction for corporate sellers, with weekly payouts and no setup or fixed fee (iyzico). PayTR quotes on request (PayTR). Banks don’t publish their virtual POS rates; as your volume grows, negotiating directly with a bank lowers the commission.
5. Legal texts: distance sales rules changed in 2025
Under Turkey’s Distance Contracts Regulation (mevzuat.gov.tr):
- The pre-contract information form must be at least 12-point and confirmed by the buyer; since 2025 it must also name the carrier for returns and tell the buyer they can go to the consumer arbitration board or a mediator.
- The right of withdrawal is 14 days; refunds are due within 14 days of the goods being handed to the return carrier.
- Return shipping: if the buyer uses the seller’s named carrier, the buyer pays no return cost; if the seller names no carrier, it may not charge a return fee.
- Delivery within 30 days at most; being out of stock doesn’t count as impossibility. Records are kept for 3 years.
Most contract templates circulating online predate the 2025 changes; update your own texts to these rules.
6. KVKK, cookies and VERBİS
- Cookies: strictly necessary cookies need no consent; behavioural advertising cookies need explicit consent. The data protection board names equally prominent “accept”, “reject” and “preferences” buttons as good practice (KVKK Cookie Guide).
- VERBİS: businesses with fewer than 50 employees and an annual balance sheet total under TRY 100 million are exempt from registration; for businesses not keeping balance-sheet books, only the employee count matters (KVKK).
- Foreign-hosted platforms: if your platform transfers data abroad, the standard contract must be notified to the authority within 5 business days.
7. İYS: commercial e-mail and SMS
To send commercial electronic messages you must register with İYS, Turkey’s message management system; consents collected outside İYS are invalid unless uploaded within 3 business days. Basic services are free, and integration is free for up to 25,000 addresses (İYS). Transactional messages such as order and shipping updates need no consent.
8. e-Fatura and e-Arşiv invoices
- For online sellers, e-Fatura and e-Arşiv become mandatory once gross sales reach TRY 500,000; the switch must be made by the start of the 7th month of the following year.
- Since 1 January 2026, sellers not yet on e-Arşiv must issue all invoices as e-Arşiv invoices; for simplified-tax and single-entry sellers, invoices over TRY 3,000 in 2026 and all invoices from 2027.
- e-Arşiv invoices for internet sales must state “This sale was made over the internet” (in Turkish), plus the website address, payment method, payment date and carrier (Turkish Revenue Administration).
9. An advertising trap: bidding on a competitor’s brand
Under Article 3 (additional) of Turkey’s E-Commerce Law No. 6563, you may not use as a search ad keyword, without permission, another business’s registered trademark that forms the main part of its ETBİS-registered domain. In 2026 each violation carries a fine of TRY 28,620–286,206; sellers with more than half their revenue from offline sales are exempt (Law No. 6563). Keep this in mind when planning Google Ads; we cover the costs in our guide to Google Ads costs in Turkey.
How to work out the first-year cost
First year = platform (yearly plan or one-off build) + design and setup + product photos + domain + payment commissions + ad budget. Example: a TRY 40,000 yearly platform plan, TRY 20,000 for theme and setup, TRY 30,000 for white-background photos of 50 products at TRY 600 each, and about TRY 51,500 of commission at 4.29% on TRY 100,000 of monthly sales. Excluding the ad budget, the first year comes to about TRY 141,500 + VAT (roughly €2,540). These are example figures; ask about each item in your own plan. For photo costs, see our guide to product photography costs in Istanbul.
E-commerce with BEF Agency
We handle store setup, payment and shipping integrations, product photography and sales ads in one team. We shoot products in our own studio, prepare images to the specs of your site and the marketplaces, and set up Google Shopping, Performance Max and Meta catalogue ads with conversion tracking. See our e-commerce service, and our guide to website costs in Istanbul.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a company to sell online in Turkey?
You need a tax registration; a sole trader is enough. People selling goods they make at home can use the tradesman’s exemption under certain conditions. Minimum capital is TRY 50,000 for a limited company and TRY 250,000 for a joint-stock company.
Is ETBİS registration mandatory?
Yes. Sellers on their own site, on marketplaces or only on foreign marketplaces must register with ETBİS before they start trading.
How much does it cost to start an online store in Turkey?
Paid yearly plans on store platforms cost about TRY 40,000–139,000 in September 2026, and ikas also has a free starter plan. Agency builds cost TRY 25,000–200,000 as a one-off, custom software over TRY 200,000. Payment commissions, product photos and the ad budget come on top.
Is e-invoicing mandatory for online sellers?
For online sellers, e-Fatura and e-Arşiv become mandatory once gross sales exceed TRY 500,000. And since 1 January 2026, sellers not yet on e-Arşiv must issue their invoices as e-Arşiv invoices.
Can I use Shopify in Turkey?
Yes, but pricing is in dollars, Shopify Payments isn’t available in Turkey and an extra transaction fee applies with third-party payment providers. Because data is held abroad, KVKK’s rules on international transfers also apply.
