İçkisepeti

What did it do?

İçkisepeti was an e-commerce site launched in Istanbul in the summer of 2008 that delivered alcoholic drinks ordered online or by phone to customers' doors. It operated 24 hours a day, every day of the week, delivering in an average of 30 minutes by motorbike and car from its warehouse in Sefaköy. Alongside around 300 kinds of drink, it also sold cigarettes, cigars and snacks.

Why did it shut down?

İçkisepeti's closure stemmed not from a market or team problem but from a change in the law. In March 2011 the company announced on its own Twitter account that it had stopped its online ordering service under Article 175 of Law No. 6111. According to a 2017 round-up by the Turkish news outlet Habertürk, the site was forced to close after this law banned the sale of alcohol online. Because the entire business model was built on online and phone orders, the regulation wiped out the core product at a stroke. It was a textbook example of how a start-up in a regulated industry can be rendered completely unviable by a single change in the law.

The story

Cenk Dilbaz got the idea when he ran out of drink at his home in Yeşilköy and found all the shops nearby closed. The owner of a travel company called Kuzen Turizm, Dilbaz decided to turn this small annoyance into a business. İçkisepeti launched in Istanbul in the summer of 2008.

According to a report by the Turkish news site Ensonhaber in July 2008, the site was open 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Couriers on motorbikes and in cars delivered from the warehouse in Sefaköy to anywhere in Istanbul in an average of 30 minutes. The catalogue held around 300 kinds of drink, and cigarettes, cigars and snacks were sold too. Users could order online or by phone and pay at the door in cash or by credit card. Dilbaz said the site had 50,000 visitors on its opening day, that they had started with a team of 20 and that they had spent around YTL 700,000 (new Turkish lira) on infrastructure in a year. Franchise requests had come in from Bursa, Ankara, İzmir and Antalya. Dilbaz argued that by making it unnecessary to get in the car to buy drink, the service would also reduce drink-driving.

İçkisepeti ran on this model for about two and a half years. But Law No. 6111, passed in 2011, changed the ground the company stood on. On 7 March 2011 İçkisepeti announced in a post on its Twitter account that it had stopped its online ordering service under Article 175 of Law No. 6111. In Habertürk's 2017 list of closed e-commerce sites, İçkisepeti also appeared as the site forced to close after the ban on selling alcohol online.

İçkisepeti's story highlights a risk that founders often fail to factor in: the rules changing. There was demand, the logistics worked and the idea had quickly drawn interest. But because the whole business relied on online sales, a single change in the legal framework wiped out the core product overnight. The company had no other channel or product to switch to.

Lessons for founders

• With products exposed to regulation, keep track from the start of the legal basis for your business model and of any possible changes.
• If you depend on a single sales channel, have a plan B you can switch to if that channel closes.
• A promise of fast delivery can create strong demand, but demand alone does not remove legal risk.

Sources

1. Turkish e-commerce sites that closed before Markafoni: why did online shopping sites shut down? (Habertürk, 2017-06-02)
2. When the drink runs out at home (Ensonhaber, 2008-07-27)
3. We have stopped our online ordering service under Article 175 of Law No. 6111 (İçkisepeti (X/Twitter), 2011-03-07)
4. Shopping sites that have closed so far (Kartal 24, 2017-06-02)

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