Starting E-Commerce from Scratch: From Company Setup to First Order

Most people who want to sell online start with the website: design, colours, logo. But before you can take a first order, a few things have to be solved, and if they aren't done in the right order the site sits ready while sales can't begin. The virtual POS application can wait weeks for company documents, there is no shipping contract so the first orders are sent from a branch by hand. Below we have collected the steps for starting e-commerce from scratch in Türkiye, in the order we've seen work.

The short roadmap

For those who want the big picture first, the order is:

• Decide on your company type with your accountant and register for tax.
• Choose your sales channel: marketplace, your own site, or both.
• Pick a platform and start building the site.
• Apply to a payment provider as soon as company documents are ready.
• Sign with a shipping company and settle your invoicing setup with your accountant.
• Get your legal texts prepared and register with ETBİS.
• Photograph products, enter them in the system and place a test order.
• Launch and open the channels that will bring the first visitors.

Some of these run in parallel. The site can be designed while the company is being set up; the POS application can be pending while product photos are taken. But there are places where the order matters, which we cover one by one.

Company type and tax registration

In Türkiye, selling online regularly is generally treated as a commercial activity and requires tax registration. For those starting small, the two most common routes are a sole proprietorship and a limited company.

A sole proprietorship is usually quicker and cheaper to set up, with lower accounting costs. The downside is personal liability for the business's debts. A limited company costs more to set up and has higher monthly accounting fees, and some banks and wholesalers prefer to work with a corporate structure. Which structure is better for you tax-wise depends on your turnover and personal situation; work that out with your accountant.

For people selling products they make at home online, a tradesman exemption exists under certain conditions. Its scope and limits are updated periodically, so we recommend asking your accountant directly. Which invoice type you need also depends on your turnover and current rules; confirm that with your accountant too.

One of the things customers ask most in first meetings is: 'Let's build the site first and set up a company if sales come in.' We don't recommend it. Payment providers and banks usually ask for a tax certificate, so a site without a company can end up as a shop window that can't take card payments.

Choosing a platform

The first decision is where you will sell. Marketplaces offer ready traffic; in return you pay commission (check current rates on the platform's own pages) and the customer relationship largely runs through the platform. Your own site requires you to bring traffic yourself, but the customer relationship and the brand are yours. For many brands, the sensible move is to generate cash flow on a marketplace while growing their own site in parallel.

For your own site there are several options. Hosted e-commerce packages (such as İkas, Ticimax and Shopify) work on monthly or yearly subscriptions, are quick to set up, and often come with local payment and shipping integrations. With a platform you own, you have maintenance costs instead of a subscription, and you can change anything you like. We compared these options on cost and integrations in a separate article.

When choosing, answer three questions: how many products are you starting with, is your variant structure (size, colour) complex, and will you need marketplace integration in the next year? A boutique starting with 20 products is fine with a simple setup, while a business with thousands of products and several marketplace connections has to think about stock syncing from day one.

Payments, shipping and invoicing

There are two ways to accept card payments: get a virtual POS directly from a bank, or work with licensed payment institutions. Payment institutions can offer instalment options through a single integration; approval times and fees vary by provider, so compare current terms on each provider's own site. We covered the difference between the two models separately.

Applications typically ask for a tax certificate, signature circular, ID copy, company address, and for the site to be live or at least viewable in a test environment. Having legal texts and contact details on the site makes approval easier. That is why applying for the POS while the site is half-built is good timing.

For shipping, we recommend a corporate contract with a carrier even when your volume is small. Contract rates are often better than walking into a branch, and many carriers offer an integration that pulls orders from your site automatically and lets you print labels. Charges are mostly based on volumetric weight (desi); work out the packed dimensions and weight of your products in advance.

For invoicing, settle which document type you should use with your accountant. If you use electronic invoices, choosing an integrator that connects to your site means an invoice is created automatically for every order and emailed to the customer. Even at five orders a day, issuing invoices by hand gets tiring fast.

Legal texts and ETBİS

Businesses selling through their own site usually have these texts on it: a distance sales agreement, a preliminary information form, return and withdrawal terms, a KVKK (personal data) privacy notice, and a privacy and cookie policy. Consumers generally have a 14-day right of withdrawal, and how to use it must be clearly stated. Settle which texts you need and what they say with a lawyer; we gave a general overview in our article on the distance sales agreement.

Template texts copied from another site are a mistake we see often. They can contain another company's name, the wrong return address or terms for products you don't sell. Have the texts adapted to your business and checked by a lawyer.

ETBİS (Electronic Commerce Information System) is the Ministry of Trade's registry for businesses doing e-commerce. Businesses selling through their own sites have a registration obligation; registration is done through the ETBİS portal using e-Devlet login. For the scope, deadlines and any information you must display on your site afterwards, check the current rules on the Ministry's official page. We gave a general overview of the registration in a separate article.

Entering your products

This step is usually underestimated and is one of the biggest causes of delays. Each product needs at least: a clear product name, 4 to 6 photos, dimensions and materials, variants, price, stock quantity, volumetric weight for shipping and an original description of at least a few sentences.

Think of a starting catalogue of 50 products. Even at just 20 minutes per product, that is about 17 hours of work, not counting the photo shoot. So we recommend preparing product data in a spreadsheet without waiting for the site to be finished. Most platforms allow bulk uploads from an Excel or CSV file.

You don't need an expensive studio for photos. A window with daylight, a sheet of white card and your phone's portrait mode are enough for most product groups at the start. What matters is that all products are shot in the same light, from the same angle and at the same ratio. Mismatched photos on a category page make the whole site look amateur.

Copying the manufacturer's description is another mistake we see often. When the same text sits on dozens of sites, Google has no reason to favour yours, and using someone else's text without permission can also raise copyright issues. Two or three sentences answering the questions a customer would ask do more than a copied paragraph.

Marketing until the first order

Nobody shows up the day the site launches. That is the moment of greatest disappointment. It can take months for Google to get to know a new site and for a product page to find a place in search. The first orders usually come from direct channels.

The channels that tend to work in the first weeks: your existing Instagram followers and WhatsApp list (make sure recipients have consented before you send commercial messages), free listings of your products in the Google Shopping tab through Google Merchant Center, small social media ads focused on a single product, and asking for reviews from first purchases in your own circle. If you can set money aside, plan a separate ad budget for the first month rather than taking it out of the setup budget.

As first orders come in, the most valuable information is where the customer came from and what they asked before buying. Write these down; updating product pages and your FAQ around those questions directly helps the next conversions.

The first 90 days checklist

You can track the three months after launch with the list below. You don't have to finish everything in the first week, but if an item is still unchecked on day 90, you are probably losing sales somewhere.

• A test order was placed and payment, invoice, shipping and return were tried end to end.
• Google Search Console and Google Analytics are set up and purchases are tracked.
• A Merchant Center account is open and the product feed is approved.
• ETBİS registration is done and any required information is on the site.
• The shipping integration works and labels print from the system.
• Product pages state dimensions, materials, delivery time and return terms.
• The first 10 customers were asked for a review.
• The mobile checkout was tested on at least 3 different phones.
• The cart abandonment rate was checked and the step with the biggest drop was identified.
• The first month's records were reviewed with the accountant.

The most frequently skipped item is the first one. Sites that launch without placing a real order with a real card to a real address, and returning it, let their first customer find the first bug.

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for legal, financial or tax advice. For your own situation, consult a lawyer or a certified accountant.