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Pioneering the online marketplace in Turkey, we’re putting the spotlight on Hepsiburada. As a subsidiary of Doğan Online Group, with diverse portfolio of technology companies, Hepsiburada is the largest e-commerce platform in the EEMEA region and the fastest growing one in Europe. The platform boasts more than 50 million products available across more than 40 categories like fashion, beauty products, electronics, and auto supplies. 

In an exclusive interview with a company that welcomes an average of 200+ million total monthly views from Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, we asked Esra Beyzadeoglu, Chief People and Culture Officer some interesting questions about the company.

A Brief About the Company 

Founded in 1998  the company is proud to become the largest e-commerce platform in Turkey and the surrounding region.  As Hepsiburada provides 50 million products in over 40 categories to its customers, the company strives to meet the needs of +200 million monthly visits with a team connecting the Silicon Valley mindset with Grand Bazaar culture and blending data and experience.

Hepsiburada of Turkey leads the development of the online shopping industry with its marketplace model that brings together tens of thousands of SMEs, with the region’s largest Intelligent Operation Centre, and with state-of-the-art R&D Centre where it focuses on technological innovations to support the improvement of the sector. With a customer experience-centric approach, Hepsiburada co-operates and co-invests in projects with leading companies in their respective fields. The e-commerce company continues to grow together with all the stakeholders through innovation and entrepreneurial spirit embedded in the company’s DNA by the Founder and Chairwoman Hanzade Doğan, and spearhead the digital transformation in Turkey. Hepsiburada is building a giant ecosystem that benefits all its stakeholders, together with the various companies and subsidiaries such as Hepsijet, its company bringing an innovative perspective to the logistics industry, Hepsipay, its digital payment services provider; Hepsiexpress, offering fresh grocery and food delivery directly to the customer door at their desired times; HepsiAd, an advertisement platform for brands; Hepsiglobal, providing the opportunity to become a global player through E-exports and many more to the stakeholders.

As a tech company, Hepsiburada focuses on the transformative and constructive power of technology and contributes to social development, entrepreneurship, and innovation with its CSR initiatives. In this respect, through the ‘Technology Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs’ program launched in May 2017, the company supports women to establish and grow their businesses without charge.

Leading An E-Commerce Giant With Experience 

Esra Beyzadeoglu is the Chief People and Culture Officer at Hepsiburada. Esra has 21 years of technology, digital transformation, business process, management consultancy, system analysis, design, and project management experience. 

Before joining the Hepsiburada, Esra was Executive Vice President-CIO-COO responsible for IT, Digital Banking, CRM, and Operations of a full-segment serving commercial bank in Turkey for three years. Before joining the bank in 2018, she worked nearly seven years as Senior Vice President of Information Technologies for one of the Turkey’s largest banks, and nearly six years as System Integration and Management Consultant in Accenture Consulting, multinational management, and technology consulting company, leading the management consulting and system integration projects for various local and international clients in Turkey.

After graduating in Industrial Engineer as a Bachelor of Science from Galatasary University, Esra has participated in a variety of courses and credential programs both in Turkey and abroad. In 2014, she attended and graduated with honors from the Sabancı University Executive MBA program, which was co-sponsored by the MIT Sloan School of Management, getting a full scholarship during the program. Part of the program included chapters lectured in the United States by MIT professors on entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation.

Lessons Learnt from her Journey to Entrepreneurship

“When I consider my 20+years’ career and educational background, I realize that “hard work” is what I know best.I’ve always been inspired by people who have achieved success through hard work.I’ve jumped from one story to the next with increasing enthusiasm”, said Esra.  

She further added that luck played a significant role in meeting the right people in the right places, and professional and personal development contributes greatly to business life. Esra was lucky to get into business life by working with big women role models and executives. She always believes that taking chances is about striving to offer and deliver the best of the best, therefore, accepting that working with patience, perseverance and constantly investing in yourself leads to success. She also learned time management during her master’s degree when she had to balance time between work and her three-year-old son.

Facing and Overcoming Business Challenges 

Compared to other industries, achieving success as a woman is much more difficult in technology. Esra had already gone through a male-dominated education, and new challenges awaited her in business life. She started her career in the IT department that included people who helped her in overcoming a lot of challenges. Life was flying by and Esra had a social life to balance alongside her corporate life. It was crucial for her to achieve this balance without losing herself in the process. She devoted her time to everything that could improve the team and the social environment.

The Prerequisites of being a Transformational Leader 

Transformation entails constant learning and renewal. It’s like a new butterfly emerging from its cocoon every day. The business’ doors should be open to innovations. Esra found this to be highly valuable. She believed there is a reward after every struggle, which is sometimes experience or a gold or silver medal.

When talking about leadership, she believes that a good leader should always lead the team towards the target. Sometimes when the team feels demotivated because they are overwhelmed or due to any other reason, a leader should be the one to get them back on track. When you need to take a moment for yourself, the team should proceed as if you are still in command.

Innovating Services for Customer Satisfaction 

As a technology company, Hepsiburada is constantly listening to the customers and developing innovative services for their expectations and needs. The company blends essential features of Silicon Valley, such as data, system, and process, with the aspects of Turkey’s centuries-old Grand Bazaar cultures, such as people skills, experience, and good market knowledge. As a technology powerhouse that carries entrepreneurship and innovation in its DNA, the e-commerce company has a marketplace business model that brings together tens of thousands of SMEs, entrepreneurs, and businesses while directly selling operational capability.

With the giant ecosystem it has brought to the sector, the company continues to present innovative products and services that change the lives of its customers, business partners, and all its stakeholders. Known as a brand that has been investing in the sector for many years, Hepsiburada continues to make a difference in terms of digital infrastructure, experience, and hardware with its Smart Operation Center, which is the largest in Turkey, and its R&D centers, where the company has conducted technological studies that lift the bar in the sector.

The Impact of Disruptive Technologies

Esra always makes sure to use the destructive power of technology constructively. This has always been the case throughout her career. Technology has removed borders and made it easier to learn and access information. She believes that these past couple of years have also enriched and transformed the concept of leadership which made it essential to lead innovation, motivate the team accordingly, give them a chance to try and clear their way. 

She always tells her teams to not be afraid of this effect, but instead investigate how they can develop with an upskill-reskill perspective. She is very fond of one particular Simon Sinek’s quote - “Success is a team sport.” Esra fully agrees and added that only those who understand this and adapt accordingly can be successful leaders.

Where is the Journey Leading to?

When asked about the future of the company and the industry, Esra spoke about the growth estimations of e-commerce between 2020 and 2024. It is expected that e-commerce in Turkey will grow by an average of 23.7% each year and increase by 2.3 times in four years.

In 2020, e-commerce in Turkey grew by 66% compared to the previous year, driven by the dynamics triggered by the pandemic. These figures clearly show how permanent the transformation is and the needs and tendencies of consumers will no longer be the same.

She summarized the agenda of the e-commerce industry as paying attention to customer needs, using digital and technological developments such as big data and artificial intelligence to develop solutions that suit these needs. 

Esra believes that e-commerce will take shape both in Turkey and in the world according to content and features that make decision-making and selection easier, and conveniences such as shopping on installment and online consumer loans, or innovations in the mobile experience. However, big data will remain important. Process solutions such as warehousing software are bound to become more significant. 

Esra further pointed out that E-exports will become even more prominent as they eliminate geographic boundaries for both buyers and sellers. By extension, there will be a necessity for solutions such as international logistics, multi-language competence, and multi-currency payment infrastructure.

From this perspective, Hepsiburada carries out studies such as data-analysis systems, customization engines to provide personalized suggestions, retail solutions, warehouse platforms, payment systems, and end-to-end delivery at its R&D center. As a result of these, it produces innovative projects and makes investments accordingly. Each output of these works turns into elements that make the Hepsiburada user’s life easier in e-commerce.

The future of Hepsiburada will be focussed on providing a pleasant shopping experience to customers by providing uninterrupted service and grow together with the retail industry through the constructive business model the company has developed. In this scope, Hepsiburada will continue to spawn projects with its R&D teams and make new investments.

The company plans on continuing the enriching ecosystem with its vision of being the leading “super app” of the region. In order to accomplish its ambition of becoming the largest technology company in the wide-area extending from west India to East Germany, Hepsiburada continues to invest and work to build a vast ecosystem that will cater to 1 billion customers within four hours of flying distance from Istanbul.

A Message to Emerging Women Leaders

“My most important piece of advice to women is to be self-assured. We women are extremely strong beings. We perfectly balance and control our social lives, families, jobs, and spouses. Though they can come across as prejudiced people, women should keep doing what they do best without losing motivation”, said Esra. She also added that women should always share what they have done and should be inspired and in turn, inspire others, at the same time. Esra also believes that they should always have wind under their wings, be it children, awards, or projects.