Payment systems in Turkey continue to make progress and change

Innovation-oriented growth category is perhaps the most voluminous. Structural arrangements, new products and customer experience have been witnessed.

Innovation-oriented growth category is perhaps the most voluminous. Structural arrangements, new products and customer experience have been witnessed.

Payment systems in Turkey have been continuing to make progress and change with a serious momentum since the late 90s. Figures also prove it. When growth and change result from innovation, you see the same picture wherever you go around the world. Here, we are talking about an innovation-oriented growth category that is perhaps the most voluminous in Turkey. We should also add that in Turkey we have witnessed several structural arrangements, new products, and customer experiences either via physical or electronic media. Therefore, it is normal for the rate of change in payment systems to decrease a little. In addition to this, it can be said that new legislative regulations entering into force in this field and their effects on the service providers and end users are one of the important constituents in this change.

Turkey leads the world in the field of payment systems, but mobile payment solutions are perhaps the arena where it lags behind a little. It can be said that this results from the fact that service providers continue to invest in conventional products. The more investments and efforts are made in this field, the more mobile world will come to life. On the other hand, customer loyalty applications in Turkey make a difference in the eyes of the customer and that is why they are demanded. I think this is the trick. End users not only demand mobile payment solutions, but also loyalty + payment solutions.

We can see that mobile payment solutions have started to enter our lives nowadays and that there is more progress to be made in this area. The year 2016 will be a transformative year with the new legislative regulations in this field. We expect mobile commerce to be created on social media channels in Turkey. In this field a non-recorded volume is already existing. In addition to this, we are observing that there are some infrastructures slowly entering the Turkish market as a collection solution for small businesses.

I think that the key thing is that mobile commerce relieves customers from spatial dependence. It gives them the freedom to shop wherever and whenever they want. This is really a revolution for the users and several most developed countries have already started to enjoy this new world. Generally, m-commerce is likened to e-commerce in terms of structure, however it does not mean that they are the same. We anticipate that as m-commerce develops, it will be able to take a small share of the e-commerce pie. We also think that it will draw a brand new audience to shopping in its field, particularly from the new generations who are addicted to their mobiles.

Even just looking at the related examples in the world gives us a thrill. The increase in shopping volumes and smartphones—the main instruments of mobile commerce, which have become like wallets and are used as POS machines at the shops—will make an economic contribution to the country at the point of physical investment.

At Asseco SEE we embrace our own approach to offer our experience, service providing power, and service level in the field of electronic commerce, to mobile payment institutions as well. Through a banking service we plan to offer our infrastructure services to these institutions with Service Level Agreements. This is an assertive goal and we have no doubt that we will achieve it.

Tarık Onat,
Country Sales Manager,
Asseco SEE, Turkey