Teketek

What did it do?

Teketek was an e-commerce site affiliated with the Turkish technology distributor Kont Bilişim. It sold mainly computers, phones and consumer electronics, and over time expanded its categories to everything from white goods to baby products. The site also had a points system, gift vouchers, an affiliate programme and a business sales section for resellers.

Why did it shut down?

Teketek made no public statement when it closed. According to a 2017 round-up by Habertürk, the site failed to reach its target turnover. In February 2009 Webrazzi listed Teketek among the e-commerce sites that were frequently talked about but had closed some time earlier; Estore, Koysepete and Yeterkiiste were on the same list. It is conceivable that a distributor's own retail site struggled to compete on price with its resellers selling the same products and with the big e-commerce sites; but this is not confirmed in Teketek's case, and this is an interpretation.

The story

For companies distributing technology products wholesale, there was an obvious move to make in the mid-2000s: selling the stock in the warehouse directly to consumers online. Teketek was a product of that idea. According to the site's About page in the Internet Archive, Teketek moved into e-commerce in 2005 and presented itself as a fast-growing shopping site run by a trained team. According to the footer in a capture dated December 2008, the site was an affiliate of the technology distributor Kont Bilişim.

In a January 2007 capture in the archive, Teketek offered a wide list of categories, from phones and computers to white goods, and from furniture to car accessories. There was a points system, gift vouchers, an affiliate programme and a business sales section for resellers. By 2008 the site, under the slogan "Size özel alışveriş" (“Shopping just for you”), had narrowed its focus to computers, phones and consumer electronics.

In December 2008 the shop was still open. In the February 2009 archive capture, however, there were no longer any products on the home page; only information about returns and warranty procedures remained. That same month Webrazzi, listing e-commerce sites that had recently closed, included Teketek and described it as one of the sites whose name had been heard a great deal.

The company gave no reason for the closure. Habertürk's 2017 round-up wrote that Teketek, Kont Bilişim's sales site, had failed to reach its target turnover. In 2011 the domain name was put up for sale.

Teketek's story is a reminder that being close to the product is not enough to win in retail. For a distributor, selling to consumers means an entirely new business that, alongside the warehouse and supply advantage, involves marketing, customer service and relations with resellers. This is an interpretation.

Lessons for founders

• Even if you have a supply advantage, calculate the cost of acquiring customers on the retail side separately; cheap products alone do not bring traffic.
• If you sell the same products to consumers as your resellers do, manage the channel conflict from the outset.
• Set the closure criteria in advance for a side venture that misses its turnover target, so that the decision does not drag on.

Sources

1. Which e-commerce sites have closed recently? (Webrazzi, 2009-02-12)
2. Turkish e-commerce sites that closed before Markafoni (Habertürk, 2017-06-02)
3. teketek.com About Us page, Internet Archive capture (Internet Archive, 2006-05-13)
4. teketek.com home page, Internet Archive capture (Internet Archive, 2008-12-06)
5. teketek.com home page, Internet Archive capture (Internet Archive, 2009-02-23)

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