Turkey’s retail sector is among Europe’s largest markets in terms of household spending. Today, the retail sector is evolving rapidly and radically. With each passing day, consumers become more knowledgeable, and product variety expands accordingly. The Turkish retail sector continues to grow in line with initiatives aimed at staying current with this transformation. ‘Traditional channel’ sales points, also including small-scale and independent grocery stores that are generally run by families, dominated the sector in the past, until the emergence of ‘modern channel’ (e.g. supermarkets, hypermarkets and discount stores) which became widespread.

Among the marketing channels, the modern channel has performed over 100% on a 10-year performance basis. The rapid development of discount stores has played an important role in this rise. With the number of points opened in the last three years, discount stores have become a model dominating the modern channel. Price and proximity appear to be the most important factors in the growth of discount stores; meanwhile, the traditional channel has shrunk as a result of the decline of models such as grocery stores, kiosks, and dry food vendor compared to the previous year, there has been a slight decline in terms of the number of stores in the traditional channel.

In 2019, the modern channel grew by 18*% on the basis of the number of stores, as a result of the impact created by discount stores. In the modern channel, discount markets take the first place in terms of market turnover growths. Gaining market share from small-scale supermarkets (under 400 m2) and the traditional channel on a yearly basis, discount markets are the model making the greatest contribution to market growth. As a result of the strong growth in the last three years, discount markets have become the leader of the market in terms of the number of stores.

As regards the development of ŞOK Marketler, the Company realized a growth of 33% as of the end of December 2018-2019, surpassing other market players. Discount stores increased by 22*% and supermarkets by 16*% in the said period.

*NIELSEN RETAIL PANEL