So far, everyone has probably seen the black Friday -the craziest shopping chaos of the world- images occurring on the last Thursday of November after thanksgiving, midnight queue fights, shop louvers and LCD TVs that don’t fit in shopping carts in the US, the homeland of e-commerce. So much so that this tradition has spread to most countries, for example, in our country, big discounts have been provided to the consumer by domestic companies with names such as lucky Friday and legendary Friday.
For about 10 years, there has been a strangeness in the US thanksgiving days, and every year more and more people are shopping on Black Friday without going into fistfights only with their pajamas and internet, and this number is increasing every year. According to the analysis figures, which shows that online sales increase every year according to the USA data, the 2019 black Friday online shopping rate has increased by 20 percent compared to the previous year and the number of online shoppers exceeded the number of those who went to the store. In Turkey, 60% of the legendary Friday shopping in 2019 was made online.
E-commerce is no longer a trend, but a way of life. Some stores don’t even have a physical presence anymore. Classic shops, on the other hand, are trying to enliven retail shopping with facilities such as free wi-fi, sweepstakes, concerts, exhibitions and entertainment venues. In fact, most of their online sales sites have already been created. Classic stores hope that they can continue to compete in the retail area by gathering in shopping malls and providing a climatically customized shopping space that is not affected by cold, rain and heat, with games, theaters and restaurants. On the other hand, restaurants and markets in the service sector continue to adapt to e-commerce with models such as mobile order and door-to-door delivery. It is now clear that consumers are shopping online at an increasing speed.
E-commerce’s ability to give the chance to compare prices and growing by making the choice of goods independent, transparent and useful eliminated the pricing power of traditional commerce. With the rapid socialization of people, advertising and sales on social media platforms such as Google, Instagram and Facebook have become other factors in the rapid growth of online shopping.
In the USA, 15 major retailers have declared bankruptcy in the last 2 years. On the other hand, Wal-Mart, the largest retail sector in the same year, announced that its quarterly online sales increased by 40%; it also went on a reduction in new store opening plans.
E-commerce created a new list of winners and losers in the economy. In light of the difficulties and problems brought by the growth of e-commerce, every sector has to redesign itself.
E-commerce in the U.S. closed so many traditional stores and there are no longer enough traditional stores in malls to fill all the available space. We also hear the news about malls closing in Turkey. Moreover, the Covid-19 crisis added even more to this. But the Covid-19 crisis has given a compulsory lesson to those who still do not want to see reality in the trade or those who take it slow: Reaching people at home.
For now, not all retail categories are affected by e-commerce in the same way.
So, how is the situation in real estate?
E-commerce is like a wolf chasing the deer herd by catching only the elderly and the sick. The online process, which is developing rapidly in other sectors, has not been able to reach those dimensions in the real estate sector yet, but it will come one day.
Of course, classic trading is still considered e-commerce resistant, as online shopping does not allow customers to taste, touch, or feel the object as part of the transaction. Of course, customers will want to see the property they will live in, especially in real estate. But this also has expansions such as video support and virtual tours.
Adapting to e-commerce can challenge the traditional real estate industry. But remember there was a period to buy a house from a model. People have even bought unexisting houses that they only trust and when they are affordable, that is, they bought the future, their dreams. In the online real estate sale, they will purchase a concrete product. Demand is always there.
Companies ready for online sales will be pioneers in this business and will see the advantages of it. Do not forget that the platforms like Sahibinden.com, have already replaced classic real estate companies and newspapers ads. They offered the classification, constriction and budgeting to the buyer, which can be called the first part of the job and brought the real estate to the buyer without them having to visit different real estate agencies. The habits still need to be challenged when it comes to seeing and examining which is the next step of the sales process. It is not a problem being online and getting the title deed and payment transfer for a long time now.
As Trem Global, we are present in this field and we are ready to meet requests of our customers with both the classical method and the e-commerce methods. With TEPP, which I mentioned earlier, we can sell real estate online. In this program, our customers can choose the property they want both digitally and by seeing and examining which are the necessities of the traditional ways, with the support of a staff who can answer all of their questions and with affordable pricing. For now, even though it continues as giving passport to foreigners who want to purchase a home in Turkey and obtaining residence permits or citizenship in this way, this method is the future of the real estate. In our day, when the market share of e-commerce has increased rapidly compared to classical commerce, the change in the real estate sector is inevitable, albeit slowly. Technology is already ready for this, giving the customer the confidence he needs. We are here for that.
I offer my respects, greetings and love to all of our investors that we served with and got benefitted from our services until today, and wish healthy days.
Muhammet Torun
Trem Global CEO