Sales are increasing in e-commerce, profits are decreasing: Sellers think they are making a profit

As e-commerce volume in Türkiye rapidly increases, thousands of sellers sell millions of products daily on marketplaces. However, despite these increasing sales, many businesses struggle to understand why their revenue is declining. BirFatura CEO İbrahim Bayır stated that sellers neglect profit tracking, saying, "Sellers track their sales but not their profits. They conduct transactions and issue invoices every day, but ultimately, they don't know where they're losing what they earned. The profit isn't going to the cash register; it's lost within the system." According to BirFatura's field analysis, approximately 50 lira of a 100 lira sale on marketplaces goes to commissions, advertising, shipping, returns, software, and tax expenses. Bayır summarized the situation by saying, "The seller leaves their profit in the virtual cash register," adding, "When a seller sells 100 lira, they often only have 40-45 lira left. The rest goes to other parts of the system. Commissions, advertising budgets, shipping, and returns costs have become the seller's unseen partners."

Bayır noted that due to the nature of e-commerce, multiple institutions take a share of every sale, emphasizing that operational disorganization is one of the biggest problems in e-commerce. He stated that SMEs need to manage sales, invoices, shipping, and inventory with integrated systems. İbrahim Bayır explained that the BirFatura platform offers businesses a time and cost advantage by consolidating this process into a single dashboard. He continued, "The seller thinks they're making a profit because the money is entering their account. But it's also leaving just as quickly. If you ask who makes the profit, the answer is clear: the system. The seller puts in the effort, but a significant portion of the revenue is lost to platforms, banks, and advertising channels. Time is the biggest cost for SMEs. When you can manage everything from a single location, the margin of error decreases and operational efficiency increases. This indirectly creates an impact that protects profitability."

Bayır added that e-commerce volume in Türkiye is approaching 3 trillion lira by 2025, but many sellers still manually track their income and expenses, noting that this exacerbates the problem of low profitability despite high sales volume. Emphasizing that this process is no longer just a technical issue, Bayır said, "E-commerce isn't just about selling. It's also about process management. Whoever manages their processes well will maintain their profits. The focus should be on profitability, not sales figures. The winner in e-commerce won't be the highest-selling seller, but the one who manages them best. Sellers now have to manage not only their products but also their time and processes. The businesses that can maintain their profits, digitize their processes, and maintain control will make the difference."

UAV

Reporter: News Center