# İndirdik.com (2010 – 2016)

- URL: https://girisimcikafasi.com/en/startup-graveyard/indirdik/
- Sector: E-commerce
- Country: Turkey
- Total funding: unknown
- Cause of closure: Business model failed

## What did it do?

İndirdik.com was the relaunch, under a new name and on new infrastructure in 2010, of Bendeİstiyorum.com, the Turkish e-commerce site founded by Mustafa Acet. Starting out by selling a single discounted product a day, the site gradually became a deals shop selling interesting and unusual products. In 2014 it began opening physical shops on a franchise model.

## Why did it shut down?

The company made no statement about the closure; in July 2016 egirişim, a Turkish start-up news site, wrote that the site had been unreachable for several days, that its last tweet had been posted in January 2016 and that the reason for the closure was unknown. According to a 2014 Webrazzi report, the company imported 70 per cent of its products itself and held 97 per cent of the products it sold in stock, and the team had shrunk from 30 people to 22. In the same period it announced a plan to grow through franchise shops. The cost of moving into a physical channel with a model that already carried the burden of stock and imports may have played a part in the closure; but this is an interpretation, as the company shared no reason.

## The story

Mustafa Acet's e-commerce adventure began with Bendeİstiyorum.com, which sold one discounted product every day. In August 2010 Burak Divanlıoğlu and Serkan Borançılı, the founders of GittiGidiyor, Turkey's leading online marketplace, invested in the site. According to Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, in the new company Acet held 40 per cent, his partner Abdullah Serdar Çurgunlu 14 per cent and the two investors 20 per cent each; Goril Bilişim was also among the partners. In November 2010 the site opened under its new name: İndirdik.com.

The early years moved fast. In 2011 Acet won the first Global Student Entrepreneur Awards held in Turkey, coming first out of 126 applicants, and went to the world final in New York. The site moved on from selling one product a day and became a deals shop selling interesting products.

In December 2014 Webrazzi reported that İndirdik.com had reached more than 2 million unique visitors and more than 15 million page views a month. The company sold 1,200 kinds of product, 70 per cent of which it imported itself; 74 per cent of orders were shipped the same day. The team had shrunk from 30 people to 22. The new goal was physical shops: the first franchise shop had opened in İzmit, and the target was 15 to 20 shops by the end of 2015.

This plan never reached any publicly reported outcome. In July 2016 egirişim, a Turkish start-up news site, noticed that the site had failed to load with a 502 error for several days and that its last tweet had been posted on 27 January 2016. The report said the reason for the closure was unknown. In August 2016 another blog also noted that the site had closed without any farewell message.

The İndirdik.com story shows that a once fast-growing deals site can quietly disappear. With no official statement, the reasons for the closure remain unclear to this day.

## Lessons

- In a stock-holding, import-based model, cash comes before growth speed; keep a close eye on stock turnover.
- Moving into a physical channel does not solve an online business's problems; more often it adds new ones.
- If you are closing, explain it to your customers and followers; a silent closure does lasting damage to your reputation.

## Sources

- [İndirdik(.)com has closed (in Turkish)](https://egirisim.com/2016/07/23/indirdik-com-kapandi/)
- [GittiGidiyor's founders invest in Bendeİstiyorum.com (in Turkish)](https://webrazzi.com/2010/08/04/gittigidiyor-kurucularindan-bendeistiyorum-coma-yatirim/)
- [indirdik.com, with 2 million visitors a month, to grow through a franchise model (in Turkish)](https://webrazzi.com/2014/12/16/indirdik-com-franchise/)
- [İndirdik.com wins the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (in Turkish)](https://webrazzi.com/2011/11/02/global-universiteli-girisimci-yarismasi-indirdik/)
- [İndirdik.com has closed (in Turkish)](https://www.zahiridunya.net/indirdikcom-kapandi/)