The era of digital transformation: Visualizing the geography of e-commerce usage in Turkey

It is noteworthy that volumes of e-commerce usage are spread over the population of the world, and the amount of transactions is quite high. In this sense, Turkey's situation is different from other countries. Although the volume of internet usage is similar to that of the world, the volume of e-commerce transactions is quite low. However, there is a stable increase in the e-commerce usage in Turkey. Between 2016 and 2020, the average annual growth rate of e-commerce usage has grown by 31% across the country. Considering the great increase in the e-commerce usage in Turkey, this study aims to visualize spatial distribution of the share of e-commerce usage over the provinces of Turkey. Findings of the research point out that the e-commerce usage shows a heterogeneous spatial distribution across Turkey. Due to the low population, in particular provinces (such as Kayseri and Karabuk in Central Anatolia, Aydin in Aegean Region, and Van in East Anatolia), there is an expanding distortion around these cities regarding the ratio of e-commerce usage.