Yeterkiiste

What did it do?

Yeterkiiste (Turkish for “just ask”) was an online shop run by Teknopazar A.Ş., an affiliate of İş Bankası, one of Turkey's largest banks. In the company's own words it had been serving customers since November 2005, offering technology enthusiasts a wide, electronics-heavy product range. According to a 2017 round-up by Habertürk, the site made an ambitious entry into the sector with 100,000 products.

Why did it shut down?

In a notice published on its website, the company announced that it had been forced to suspend its online retail operations indefinitely from 23 January 2009, but gave no reason. Webrazzi treated the notice as a closure and counted the site among the e-commerce sites that closed in late 2008 and early 2009. According to Habertürk's 2017 round-up, problems with staff, software and strategy were thought to have arisen around the time of the closure. It is also notable that the closure coincided with the months when the global crisis was hitting Turkey, but the sources do not confirm what part this played in the decision; this is an interpretation.

The story

In the mid-2000s banks in Turkey, too, had begun to see the potential of e-commerce. Yeterkiiste was a product of that interest. According to Webrazzi, the site was an affiliate of İş Bankası; according to the company's own notice, the site was run by Teknopazar Teknoloji, Yazılım ve Elektronik Pazarlama A.Ş. and had been serving customers since November 2005.

According to Habertürk's 2017 round-up, Yeterkiiste made an ambitious entry into the sector with 100,000 products. The company described itself as one of Turkey's most honest and most reliable online shops and targeted technology lovers.

In January 2009 the site closed its doors. In an Internet Archive capture dated February 2009, the home page carried a letter from the company to its customers. According to the letter, the company had been forced to suspend its online retail operations indefinitely as of 23 January 2009. Orders placed up to that date but not yet delivered would be delivered without any problems, and contact channels would stay open for past orders. Teknopazar would carry on with its business outside online retail.

In February 2009, listing e-commerce sites that had recently closed, Webrazzi included Yeterkiiste, writing that the site had gone offline indefinitely as of 23 January 2009, in other words that it had closed. Estore, Koysepete and Teketek were on the same list. The indefinite pause never ended: according to the archive, the same notice page stayed on the domain unchanged for years.

Habertürk's round-up reports that problems with staff, software and strategy were thought to lie behind the closure; the company itself gave no reason. Yeterkiiste's story shows that a strong partner and a broad product catalogue are not enough on their own without a working operation. This is an interpretation.

Lessons for founders

• Having a powerful financial partner is no substitute for the trio of working software, a team and a strategy.
• Product counts look impressive in the shop window, but the real measure is how many of those products can be sold profitably.
• If you suspend operations, state clearly how outstanding orders will be delivered; doing so preserved customer trust for Yeterkiiste even as it closed.

Sources

1. yeterkiiste.com closure notice, Internet Archive capture (Internet Archive, 2009-02-05)
2. Which e-commerce sites have closed recently? (Webrazzi, 2009-02-12)
3. Turkish e-commerce sites that closed before Markafoni (Habertürk, 2017-06-02)

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