Saklışehir

What did it do?

Saklışehir was a Turkish deals site launched in 2011 that sold discounted experiences using the group-buying model. It targeted conservative users with traditionally themed deals, such as a calligraphy workshop in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar or a photo shoot in Ottoman costumes. At first it offered deals only in Istanbul.

Why did it shut down?

In the self-critique he wrote after the closure, founder Ömer Ekinci named the target audience as the first mistake: conservatism was not a definable customer profile. He had not set aside a separate budget for the site, thinking he could keep it going on revenue from his main company, Desnet; so instead of an experienced team, he started out with young people who did not know e-commerce. He also admitted that he had not invested enough in technical infrastructure and marketing skills, and that he could not focus fully because he kept his role at Desnet. The difficulty and fast-changing dynamics of the group-buying market made things harder still. About a year later Ekinci closed the site and returned to his main business.

The story

Ömer Ekinci had grown Desnet, the company he founded with his father, in barcode and field sales systems, and won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2009. In 2011, as group-buying sites were multiplying rapidly in Turkey, he decided to enter that market too. According to GZT, the idea was born when a friend who made modest Islamic clothing said they could not sell their products on every platform; it later evolved into a platform for selling services and experiences.

Saklışehir opened in June 2011 as a deals site aimed at conservative users. Its first deals included a calligraphy workshop in the Grand Bazaar, a liver menu at Ciğeristan and a photo shoot in Ottoman costumes. According to Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, the site sold nearly 150 deals on its first day. In an interview before the launch, Ekinci said they had worked on the project for six months and had attracted investor interest before going live.

A year later the picture had changed. In a post published on his own blog in November 2012, Ekinci described the moment he realised Saklışehir was not succeeding and listed his mistakes one by one. The first was the target audience: conservatism was not a measurable customer profile. He had not set aside a separate budget for the site, thinking he could cover its costs from Desnet's revenue. So instead of an experienced team, he worked with young people who did not know e-commerce but were keen to learn; he made do with off-the-shelf software and did not invest enough in technical infrastructure. Because he did not give up his role at Desnet, he could not focus fully, and after a while he realised he had also been neglecting his main company. He did not raise investment either; in his post he said that, as an investor, he would not have invested in himself at the time.

According to an e-commerce round-up published in November 2013, Saklışehir had closed in September 2012. Ekinci turned his full attention to Desnet. Speaking to GZT years later, he summed up the reason in a single sentence: "We failed because I didn't really know my target audience." Following Ekinci's post, Webrazzi also cited Saklışehir, together with Pabbuc.com, which closed the same week, as examples e-commerce entrepreneurs could learn from.

Saklışehir's story stands out as one of the rare Turkish failure stories in which a founder wrote openly about his own mistakes.

Lessons for founders

• Define your target audience by measurable needs and behaviours, not by a label.
• Do not start a new business without a separate and sufficient budget; good intentions are no substitute for capital.
• Starting a venture as a side project while running your existing business can put both at risk.
• Enter a field you do not know with an experienced team that does.

Sources

1. Why did Saklışehir fail? Why did I flop in e-commerce? [A failure story] (Ömer Ekinci (personal blog), 2012-11-30)
2. 13 lessons to learn from e-commerce start-ups that closed (Webrazzi, 2012-12-03)
3. Saklışehir, the Turkish-style player in the deals market, launches (Webrazzi, 2011-06-07)
4. Ömer Ekinci turned his entrepreneurial failures into success (GZT, 2023-06-01)
5. Entrepreneurs' failures in e-commerce (isfikirleri-girisimcilik.com, 2013-11-10)
6. 50 failed start-ups and 50 lessons from their mistakes (30-50) (Turkishtime, 2016-05-23)

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