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Akakçe and Cimri: A Guide to Price Comparison Platforms in Turkey

Akakçe and Cimri: A Guide to Price Comparison Platforms in Turkey

Akakçe, Cimri and Turkey’s Price Comparison Layer

There is a layer in the Turkish purchase journey that most foreign brands do not know exists, and it sits between search and checkout. On a price comparison platform, your product appears in a ranked list next to every other seller offering it, sorted by price. Akakçe and Cimri are the two that matter: according to Similarweb data for August 2026 they held the first and second positions in the Price Comparison category in Turkey, which makes them significant visibility points at the product research and price comparison stage.

What these platforms share is the function rather than the checkout: they aggregate competing seller offers for the same product and rank them, and they earn by referring the shopper onward. The checkout model, though, varies by platform. Cimri works primarily by routing traffic to the store. Akakçe operates a click-based model that sends the shopper to the seller’s own site, but also supports a flow where the order can be placed through Akakçe itself — its own merchant page refers to a sale happening either through your site or through Akakçe.

That distinction changes what you are optimising. Where the traffic lands on your own site, you are buying high-intent visitors into your own checkout — which means your site, your payment setup and your conversion rate carry the outcome. Where the order completes on the platform, the economics look closer to a commission model. Establish which arrangement you are on before you model the channel.

This guide covers how the layer works, what the traffic data actually shows, how listing and billing operate, the uncomfortable relationship between your price and your click share, and when a foreign brand should stay away from this channel entirely.

Table of Contents

What this layer is, and how it differs from a marketplace

A price comparison platform is a vertical search engine for products. It aggregates listings from many retailers, does not sell anything itself, and earns money by referring shoppers onward.

Turkish e-commerce commentary draws the operational distinction this way: on marketplaces such as Trendyol or Hepsiburada the sale takes place directly on the platform and buy box competition dominates, whereas on comparison platforms the sale is typically completed on your own site or the store the shopper is directed to — the platform’s role being to route the user to the seller offering the most suitable price.

Treat that as the general pattern rather than an absolute rule. Cimri operates close to the pure model, sending traffic onward to the store. Akakçe’s click-based model does the same, but Akakçe additionally supports ordering through the platform, so a merchant there may be on either arrangement. The common ground is the comparison function; the checkout is the variable.

Three consequences follow, and they are the reason this channel behaves unlike anything else in your Turkish media plan.

You keep the customer relationship. The order happens in your checkout, with your payment infrastructure, your customer data and your email address capture. That is the opposite of the marketplace trade-off described in our guide to Hepsiburada and Amazon Turkey advertising.

Your site quality becomes the bottleneck. High-intent traffic arriving at a poorly localised checkout converts badly, and you pay for the click either way. This channel is only worth running once your Turkish site works, which is why it pairs directly with conversion rate optimization for e-commerce in Turkey.

Your price is public and ranked. Not visible after a click, as on a search ad — ranked against competitors before the click. More on why that is the defining constraint below.

The two platforms: what the data shows

According to Similarweb data for August 2026, Akakçe and Cimri hold the first and second positions respectively in the Price Comparison category in Turkey. Akakçe’s global rank stood at #1,105 against Cimri’s #5,195, and Akakçe recorded more total visits than Cimri in that month.

The engagement data is more interesting than the rankings, because it tells you something about how each platform is used. In August 2026, Akakçe showed an average visit duration of 2 minutes 14 seconds, 3.67 pages per visit and a 31.55 percent bounce rate. Cimri showed 1 minute 28 seconds, 2.78 pages per visit and a 37.59 percent bounce rate.

Metric (Similarweb, August 2026) Akakçe Cimri
Price Comparison category rank in Turkey #1 #2
Global rank #1,105 #5,195
Average visit duration 2:14 1:28
Pages per visit 3.67 2.78
Bounce rate 31.55% 37.59%

Longer sessions and more pages per visit suggest deeper comparison behaviour on Akakçe — consistent with its positioning around detailed product comparison. Shorter sessions suggest more transactional, single-answer use on Cimri. Neither pattern is better; they imply different roles in a plan.

Both platforms draw the large majority of their traffic through organic search, which is worth understanding structurally: these platforms rank for the product queries you want to rank for. A Turkish shopper searching for a product name frequently lands on a comparison page rather than a retailer. Being absent from that page does not mean the shopper finds you instead — it means they see every competitor and not you.

Similarweb also lists epey.com among category competitors, a specification-comparison site with a following in technology categories. Scan the category for your own vertical rather than assuming the two large players are the whole landscape. Note too that Similarweb figures are estimates and move month to month; treat them as directional and check current figures rather than planning against numbers quoted in an article.

Why this matters more for foreign brands

Turkish retailers have used this channel for two decades. Foreign brands routinely miss it, for three predictable reasons.

It has no Western equivalent that survived. Price comparison engines faded in most Western European markets as Google Shopping absorbed the function. In Turkey they did not — partly because Google’s Comparison Shopping Service programme, which restructured this space in the EEA, does not operate in Turkey at all. The Turkish comparison layer therefore developed on its own terms and remains commercially significant.

It is invisible in English. Almost nothing is published about these platforms in English, so a foreign marketing team researching Turkish channels will not encounter them in any channel guide.

It does not fit a standard media plan. It is neither paid search nor a marketplace nor affiliate, so it falls between the categories your planning template uses and gets left out by default.

The result is a channel where your Turkish competitors are present and you are not, in front of shoppers who are actively comparing prices at the final stage of a purchase decision. For the wider channel context, see our overview of e-commerce in Turkey.

How listing actually works

Mechanically this is simpler than most Turkish channels, because it runs on a product feed rather than campaign structures.

Application first. Both platforms operate a merchant application. Akakçe runs a store application process, and Cimri operates a store registration form where you submit your business details and documentation.

Then a feed. Products are supplied as a data feed — typically XML, with Excel and manual entry also possible on Akakçe. Turkish e-commerce platforms including T-Soft, IdeaSoft and others ship built-in XML services specifically for Akakçe and Cimri, which is a useful signal of how standard this integration is locally. If your store runs on a Turkish platform, the connector likely already exists.

Cimri accepts a Google feed. Its store registration form includes a field for a Google feed link, which means the Merchant Center feed you have already built for Google Shopping can serve as the input here. That is the single biggest efficiency available in this channel, and the reason to sequence your Google Shopping work first.

You need a functioning e-commerce site. Akakçe’s own merchant page states the requirement plainly for its click-based model: you need a site with a basic e-commerce structure where the shopper can order with confidence. This is not a channel you can use to test Turkish demand before building a Turkish storefront.

Akakçe’s two commercial models

Akakçe offers merchants more than one way to work with the platform, and the distinction matters for how you model cost.

Redirect to your own site. Akakçe’s merchant page describes paying only when your products are clicked. The shopper lands on your product page and orders through your own checkout, using your existing payment and shipping infrastructure. This is the model most relevant to a brand that wants traffic and customer ownership.

Ordering through the platform. Akakçe also operates an order-based model where the transaction is completed through the platform and a commission plus transaction fee applies based on order value. Turkish e-commerce sources describe payment flowing directly to the seller’s own virtual POS rather than being held in a pool.

Which model you are offered is not entirely your choice — Turkish e-commerce guides describe Akakçe assessing merchants against its own criteria and starting them on the model it considers appropriate.

On specific fees, be careful. Referral fees, commission percentages, minimum credit loads and any fixed monthly charges appear in various third-party Turkish blog posts, but those figures disagree with each other, change over time, and are not published as a stable public rate card. Confirm current commercial terms directly with the platform during your application rather than budgeting from a blog — including this one. What you can plan around is the structure: a click-based cost in the redirect model, and a value-based commission in the order model.

Model the click-based option the way you would any CPC channel, against the cost picture set out in our budget guide to digital marketing costs in Turkey.

Price determines click share

This is the part that decides whether the channel works for you, and it is worth being blunt about.

On a comparison platform, your listing sits in a price-sorted list. Your position in that list determines your click-through rate more directly than anything else you control. There is no creative to optimise, no ad copy to test, no quality score to improve. Turkish commentary on the channel puts it plainly: on comparison platforms your price determines your position in the list and therefore your click-through rate.

Three implications for a foreign brand.

If you are premium-priced, this is a hard channel. A brand that competes on quality, service or brand equity is entering an environment designed to surface the cheapest offer. You can still appear, and some shoppers will choose a trusted seller over the lowest price — but you are working against the platform’s organising principle.

Total cost, not unit price, is what the shopper compares. Shipping cost and delivery time sit alongside the price. A competitive unit price with expensive shipping loses to a slightly higher price with free delivery.

Price monitoring becomes operational. Your position changes whenever a competitor repositions. Turkish sellers use automated price-tracking tools against these platforms as standard practice. If you intend to compete here seriously, someone has to watch it — and in an inflationary environment where lira prices move frequently, that is a recurring task rather than a setup step.

The honest summary: this channel rewards competitive pricing and punishes premium positioning. Decide which you are before committing budget, rather than discovering it in month two.

Reusing your Google Shopping feed

Because Cimri accepts a Google feed link and Akakçe accepts XML, the feed work you do for Google Shopping in Turkey is largely reusable — but not entirely, and the differences are worth handling deliberately.

What transfers. Turkish product titles, lira pricing, product identifiers, images and category structure. Titles written from how Turkish shoppers actually search rather than translated from English will perform better here for the same reason they perform better in Google Shopping: the platform matches queries to products through your product data.

What needs attention. Feed refresh frequency matters more here, because a price mismatch between your listing and your site is both a trust problem and a conversion problem — the shopper clicked specifically because of a price. Shipping and delivery information also carries more weight in the comparison view than it does in a search ad.

What does not transfer. Campaign structure, bidding and audience targeting have no equivalent. There is nothing to optimise except your feed, your price and your site.

On product data quality generally, the language principles set out in our guides to SEO in Turkey and website localization for Turkey apply directly.

The reseller problem

Before listing, search your own brand and your three bestselling products on both platforms. Foreign brands are frequently already present — listed by Turkish resellers, parallel importers or distributors, at prices the brand did not set.

What you find shapes the decision:

  • If resellers are listed below your intended price, entering the same list at a higher price positions you below them in the ranking, in front of shoppers already comparing.
  • If the listings carry poor merchant ratings or thin product information, your own listing can differentiate on trust rather than price alone.
  • If your products are listed at prices that undercut your own distribution agreements, that is a channel conflict question to resolve commercially before it becomes a marketing one.

This is the same audit that should precede any Turkish e-commerce activity, and it is one of the more revealing things a foreign brand can do in an afternoon.

When you should not be here

An honest channel assessment includes the cases where the answer is no.

You have no Turkish e-commerce site. The redirect model requires one, and a foreign-language checkout will not convert the traffic you pay for.

You compete on brand rather than price. Luxury, premium and design-led categories are structurally disadvantaged in a price-sorted list.

Your products have no comparable equivalents. Comparison platforms work by matching identical or near-identical products across sellers. Unique, bespoke or heavily differentiated products have little to compare.

You sell services, software or B2B. This layer is consumer product retail. It does not serve those categories.

You cannot maintain lira pricing and feed freshness. Stale prices in a price-ranked environment are worse than absence.

Your margin cannot absorb referral costs on top of everything else. Model the fully loaded cost — referral fee, shipping, returns — before assuming the traffic is cheap.

Measurement and attribution

Three measurement points, one of which is easy to get wrong.

Tag the traffic properly. Comparison platform referrals should be segmented as their own channel rather than collapsing into generic referral traffic, or you will not be able to evaluate the channel at all. Getting Turkish analytics configured correctly is a common failure point, covered in our GA4 and marketing analytics setup guide for Turkey.

Measure against product margin, not blended ROAS. Referral costs and price positioning interact directly with margin. A channel that looks efficient on revenue can be unprofitable on the products where you cut price to hold position.

Expect an assist role, not only last click. Shoppers who discover you through comparison often return directly later, and the platform gets no credit in a last-click model. Comparison traffic also feeds retargeting audiences — see our guide to retargeting and remarketing in Turkey.

Because this channel spans pricing operations, feed management and site conversion rather than sitting cleanly inside media buying, it tends to need both marketing and web capability — one reason it is usually run with a partner covering both, as agencies like Medyae are structured to do. The practical point is that a feed or pricing problem here is not something a media team fixes alone.

Common mistakes

Assuming the checkout model without checking. In the common arrangement the sale happens on your site and your checkout carries the outcome — but Akakçe also supports ordering through the platform, and the economics differ.

Listing before the Turkish site is ready. You pay for clicks into a checkout that cannot convert them.

Budgeting from blog-published fee figures. Terms vary and are not published as a stable rate card; confirm with the platform.

Setting the price once. Position moves whenever competitors reprice.

Ignoring shipping in the comparison. Shoppers compare landed cost, not unit price.

Listing the full catalogue. Start with products where your price is genuinely competitive; everything else pays for clicks that lose.

Skipping the reseller audit. You may be entering a list where your own product already sits cheaper.

Expecting premium positioning to work here. It can, but only with trust signals doing real work — and it is the exception rather than the rule.

A 60-day plan

Weeks 1–2: audit and decide. Search your brand and bestsellers on both platforms and record who already lists your products and at what price. Assess honestly whether your pricing can compete. If it cannot in your main categories, identify whether a subset of products can — and if none can, stop here.

Weeks 3–4: prepare. Confirm your Turkish site converts, with local payment options and clear delivery information. Build or adapt the product feed, reusing your Google Shopping feed where possible. Apply to both platforms and get current commercial terms in writing.

Weeks 5–8: launch narrow and measure. List a limited set of genuinely competitive products rather than the full catalogue. Segment the traffic properly from day one. Track your price position, not just clicks. Review against product-level margin before expanding.

Frequently asked questions

What are Akakçe and Cimri?

They are Turkey’s leading price comparison platforms, ranked first and second in the Price Comparison category in Turkey according to Similarweb data for August 2026. They aggregate competing seller offers for the same product and rank them, then refer the shopper onward. They are not marketplaces in the Trendyol or Hepsiburada sense, though the checkout model varies: Cimri works primarily by routing traffic to the store, while Akakçe supports both a click-based redirect to the seller’s site and a flow where the order can be placed through Akakçe.

How is a comparison platform different from Trendyol or Hepsiburada?

On a marketplace, the transaction happens on the platform and sellers compete for the buy box. On a comparison platform, listings are ranked by price and the shopper is referred onward — in the common arrangement the order is completed on your own site using your own checkout, payment and shipping, so you keep the customer relationship and your site quality determines whether the traffic converts. Akakçe also offers an order flow through the platform, so confirm which model your account is on.

How do foreign brands list products on Akakçe or Cimri?

Both operate merchant applications — a store application on Akakçe and a store registration form on Cimri — followed by a product feed, typically XML. Cimri’s registration form accepts a Google feed link, so a Merchant Center feed built for Google Shopping can often be reused. Akakçe’s merchant page states that the click-based model requires a functioning e-commerce site where shoppers can order confidently.

What does it cost to list on Akakçe?

Akakçe’s merchant page describes paying only when your products are clicked in its redirect model, alongside an order-based model where commission applies on the transaction value. Specific rates, minimums and any fixed charges are not published as a stable public rate card and figures circulating on third-party blogs disagree with each other, so confirm current terms directly with the platform.

Is this channel worth it for a premium brand?

Often not. Listings are ranked by price, so the environment is structurally designed to surface the cheapest offer. Premium brands can participate where trust signals, delivery speed and merchant reputation carry weight, but should expect to work against the platform’s organising logic rather than with it.

Do I need a Turkish website to use these platforms?

For the redirect model, effectively yes. The shopper completes the purchase on your site, so a Turkish-language storefront with local payment options and clear delivery information is what determines whether the clicks you pay for become revenue.

Conclusion

Turkey’s price comparison layer is one of the few genuinely under-exploited channels available to foreign brands, and the reason is simply that it does not exist in most of the markets they come from. Akakçe and Cimri rank first and second in their category, draw the bulk of their traffic from exactly the product searches you want to win, and in the common arrangement send that traffic onward to your own site rather than keeping the transaction inside a marketplace.

The qualifying question is not whether the channel works — it does, for Turkish retailers, at scale. It is whether it works for you. If your pricing is competitive in at least part of your range and your Turkish checkout converts, this is high-intent traffic that most of your international competitors are not bidding for. If you compete on brand at a premium price with no Turkish storefront, it is a channel that will take your money and hand the sale to whoever is listed above you.

Audit the listings first, confirm the commercial terms in writing, launch on a narrow set of genuinely competitive products, and judge it on product-level margin rather than blended returns.