Most fulfillment guides focus on sellers working in just one market. You might be selling on Amazon.com and handling US logistics, or you could be a German brand using Zalando and Otto. The advice out there usually assumes you’re dealing with just one country.
But more Turkish e-commerce brands are breaking that mold. They sell on Trendyol and Hepsiburada in Turkey and are also moving onto Amazon.de, Otto, or Kaufland in Germany. This means they’re running two separate fulfillment operations: one set up for Turkish logistics, and another for Europe. These two setups don’t share infrastructure, metrics, carrier networks, or even the same pace.
This guide is for brands facing that situation. It explains the specific challenges of handling fulfillment in both Turkish and European marketplaces at the same time, and what you need to do to manage both successfully.
Table of Contents
Why Dual-Market Marketplace Fulfillment Is Structurally Different
When you add a second market, it’s natural to try to just expand your current operation. If your Turkish fulfillment process works, you might think you can just add European orders to the mix. But this approach usually fails because the two markets have different requirements that often clash.
Cut-Off Times Don’t Synchronise
Every marketplace has a cut-off time, which is the last moment an order can be shipped out the same day. On Trendyol, this cut-off and the carrier pickup schedule are set for Turkish logistics. On Amazon.de, the cut-off matches the German carrier schedules.
These cut-off times are often different because of time zones, carrier agreements, and marketplace rules. If one warehouse handles both Turkish and German orders, it has to manage two separate shipping priorities. For example, an order at 14:00 Istanbul time might need to go out by 15:30 for the Turkish carrier and by 17:00 for the German one. If the warehouse doesn’t treat these as separate queues, it’s easy to miss a cut-off for one of the markets.
The best way to handle this is to set each market’s cut-off as a separate rule in your warehouse management system (WMS), flagging orders by their destination and prioritizing them separately. This might sound simple, but your WMS needs to support marketplace-specific queue management, so it’s important to check for this feature before you assume it’s available.
Carrier Networks and Tracking Requirements Don’t Overlap
In Turkey, the dominant domestic carriers — Yurtiçi Kargo, Aras Kargo, MNG Kargo (now DHL eCommerce) — have specific API integrations, label formats, and tracking update structures. The marketplaces they serve expect tracking numbers in those carriers’ formats and update their seller dashboards accordingly.
In Germany, the equivalent carriers — DHL, DPD, GLS — have entirely different API structures, label formats, and tracking update flows. Amazon.de, Otto, and Kaufland each expect tracking numbers to be transmitted back to their systems within specific timeframes, in specific formats, or face seller metric penalties.
To run both Turkish and German carriers from one fulfillment operation, you need either middleware that connects to both sets of carrier APIs or a fulfillment partner whose WMS can handle both. Managing Turkish and German carriers manually might work when you have few orders, but it quickly becomes unmanageable as your volume increases.
Seller Metrics Are Measured Differently on Each Platform
On Trendyol, the primary seller performance metrics include on-time delivery rate, order cancellation rate, and response time to customer messages. On Amazon.de, the equivalent metrics are Late Shipment Rate, Order Defect Rate, and Pre-Fulfillment Cancellation Rate — each with specific numerical thresholds that, when breached, trigger automatic warnings or listing suppression.
These metrics aren’t just named differently—they measure different things, use different formulas, and have different consequences. For example, a 5% Late Shipment Rate on Amazon.de will get you a warning, while Trendyol might calculate and respond to this metric in another way. To manage both, you need to know which metric is most important on each platform and set up your processes to meet the stricter standard.
Inventory Management Across Two Markets
The Overselling Problem at Its Worst
Overselling, which means selling stock on one channel that’s already been sold or reserved on another, is a common risk in multichannel operations. In a setup with both Turkish and European marketplaces, this risk is even higher because your inventory might be split between two locations.
If you keep Turkish marketplace stock in Istanbul and German marketplace stock in Germany, the two inventories are separate. Overselling can only happen within each location, not between them, because the stock is physically split. This is actually a benefit of the split-warehouse model that many people overlook.
However, if both markets are being served from a single warehouse location, but if you’re serving both markets from one warehouse, which often happens when testing European sales, all channels use the same stock. In this case, you must update stock counts on every channel within minutes of any sale, no matter where the order came from. If updates take longer than five to ten minutes, you risk overselling, especially as your order volume grows. IIcated regional inventory: Turkish marketplace orders fulfilled from Turkish stock, German marketplace orders fulfilled from German stock. This eliminates cross-market overselling entirely and allows each regional operation to be managed against the specific carrier and metric requirements of that market.
Safety Stock in a Split-Inventory Model
When inventory is split between Turkey and Germany, the replenishment planning for each pool needs to account for the lead time between them. Replenishing Turkish domestic stock from a local supplier or warehouse may take two to five days. Replenishing German stock from Turkey involves an import transit that takes seven to ten days under normal conditions, plus the customs clearance process.
So, the safety stock for Germany should be based on a ten-to-fourteen-day restocking time, not the shorter Turkish timeline. Brands that use their Turkish replenishment timing for German inventory often run out of stock—not because demand was unpredictable, but because they miscalculated how long restocking takes.
A good approach is to calculate safety stock for Germany separately, using German order data and the time it takes to restock from Turkey. Review and update this calculation every quarter as your German sales grow, since you’ll need a bigger buffer as volume increases.
The SLA Challenge: Different Platforms, Different Clocks
Amazon.de: The Late Shipment Rate Threshold
Amazon.de’s Late Shipment Rate measures the percentage of seller-fulfilled orders that are confirmed as shipped after the expected ship date. The threshold is clear: above 4%, Amazon issues an automatic warning. Above 9%, Amazon may deactivate seller-fulfilled listings.
This is tricky for Turkish brands because Amazon sets the “expected ship date” based on the handling time you promise. If you offer same-day dispatch for orders before a certain cut-off, Amazon expects you to keep that promise. For example, if an order comes in at 10:00 and isn’t marked as shipped by the end of the day, it counts against your Late Shipment Rate, even if the customer gets it on time.
This means your handling time settings on Amazon.de should match what your fulfillment operation can really do, not what you hope it can do. If you’re new to the German market and using a warehouse mainly set up for Turkish logistics, start with conservative handling times. You can shorten them as your European process improves.
Trendyol and Hepsiburada: Local Carrier Pickup Windows
On Trendyol and Hepsiburada, seller performance is tied to whether orders are handed to the carrier within the marketplace’s expected dispatch window. The carrier pickup schedule determines the de facto cut-off: if Yurtiçi picks up at 16:30, an order that isn’t ready by 16:15 will be picked up the following day.
If you’re handling both Turkish and European orders from one facility in Istanbul, the afternoon pickup for Turkish carriers might overlap with processing European orders. Sharing the same team, packing area, and label printer can mean you meet the cut-off for one market but miss it for the other.
You don’t always need to separate operations physically. Instead, you can process Turkish orders first until mid-afternoon, then handle European orders later in the day. European carriers can pick up later or the next morning. The exact schedule depends on your local carrier pickup times, so talk to both your Turkish and European carrier account managers to set this up.
Return Handling Across Two Markets
The Structural Difference in Return Expectations
Return handling for Turkish marketplace orders and for German marketplace orders operates under different legal frameworks, different consumer expectation standards, and different logistical realities.
In Turkey, the Mesafeli Sözleşmeler Yönetmeliği provides consumers with a 14-day withdrawal right. The return process is relatively standardised across domestic platforms, with the carrier cost typically borne by the seller.
In Germany, the law also gives a 14-day return right under §312g BGB, but the usual market standard, set by Amazon.de and Zalando, is 30 days. German customers expect to return items easily at local DHL Paketshops or similar places. If you ask them to ship returns internationally to Turkey, they’ll have a much worse experience than they’re used to, and this can hurt your seller ratings and return rates.
If you’re selling to German customers, you need a local German return address. Returns should go to your German fulfillment center, where they’re checked and either put back into German inventory or sent back to Turkey in batches. This is what the German market expects, and you can’t meet this standard without having fulfillment in Germany.
Return Inspection Standards
Returned goods inspection has different parameters in each market. In Turkey, consumer protection law and typical consumer behaviour set one expectation for condition assessment. In Germany, the Vernichtungsverbot (product destruction ban, §23 KrWG) adds a legal dimension: returned goods that are still functional or resaleable cannot simply be disposed of — they must be routed to resale or repurposing.
If you have inventory in Germany, your inspection process should sort returns into at least three categories: back to main stock, secondary channels like B-Ware or open-box, and real disposal for items that can’t be used. Make sure your German fulfillment partner can handle all these options before you choose them.
Technology: The Integration Layer That Makes Dual-Market Operations Work
What the Integration Stack Needs to Handle
Running Turkish and European marketplaces from a common operational platform requires an integration stack that manages:
Order intake from each marketplace in its native format. Trendyol, Hepsiburada, Amazon.de, Otto, and Kaufland each have different order object structures, different status update requirements, and different notification timelines. The middleware or WMS integration layer needs to normalise these into a common internal format while preserving the marketplace-specific data needed to send correct responses back to each platform.
Inventory updates must be sent to each marketplace whenever stock changes because of a sale, return, or adjustment. If all channels use the same stock, updates should happen almost instantly. If you have separate Turkish and German inventories, you only need to update the channels that use each pool.
Tracking update transmission. Each marketplace expects tracking numbers and status updates in its own format and timeline. Amazon.de expects tracking confirmation within a specific window after the ship date. Trendyol expects tracking numbers in the format of the domestic carrier used. The integration layer handles the translation between the carrier’s tracking data and each marketplace’s expected format.
The Middleware Options for Turkish-European Operations
For brands managing Turkish and European marketplaces, the relevant middleware options are those that support integrations to both sets of platforms. Tools commonly used in the Turkish market — Entegra, Ticimax, and similar — have strong domestic marketplace coverage but may have limited European marketplace integration depth. European-focused tools — ChannelEngine, Tradebyte — have strong coverage of Amazon.de, Otto, and Zalando, but may require custom work for Trendyol and Hepsiburada.
The practical evaluation question is not “which tool covers more When choosing middleware, don’t just look for the tool that covers the most marketplaces. Instead, focus on which one supports your exact combination of marketplaces with reliable, up-to-date integrations. Ask providers directly about their support for Trendyol and Hepsiburada (including recent API changes) as well as Amazon.de and Otto, instead of assuming all platforms are equally supported. fulfillment partner for this operational setup needs a capability profile that few single-country providers can match. The evaluation criteria that matter most:
Physical infrastructure in both Turkey and Germany. This is the prerequisite for the split-inventory model that makes dual-market operations scalable. A partner with warehouses in both locations can manage Turkish domestic fulfillment and German marketplace fulfillment as a unified operation, with a single inventory management system spanning both locations.
Carrier relationships in both markets. Turkish domestic carriers for Turkish orders; German domestic carriers for German orders. The partner’s carrier network should include the carriers that each marketplace integrates with most effectively in each market.
WMS that supports marketplace-specific queue management. Cut-off times, dispatch priority, and tracking update formats need to be configurable at the marketplace level, not just at the channel level in aggregate.
Look for a partner with experience moving stock from Turkey to Germany. Setting up and restocking inventory in Germany means dealing with imports. A partner who knows this process, including HS code checks and customs paperwork, will save you time and help you avoid mistakes.
Demonstrated return handling capability in Germany. Local return address, rapid inspection SLA, multi-path disposition support, and compliance with Vernichtungsverbot requirements. These need to be confirmed specifically for the German location, not assumed from the partner’s general capabilities.
The Operational Maturity Curve
Most Turkish brands entering European marketplaces follow a typical path. First, they ship products from Turkey to German customers using international carriers, which can be slow and complicated. This stage helps test if there’s enough demand in Germany before investing in local inventory.
The next phase is moving some fast-selling products to a German warehouse, using local carriers, and offering two-day delivery in Germany. This also helps fix Late Shipment Rate issues on Amazon.de. Most of the challenges in this guide show up during this stage.
The third phase is operational maturity: the final phase is reaching operational maturity. Both markets run on a shared system with split inventories, real-time updates, marketplace-specific order management, and local return handling in each country. At this point, the complexity becomes an advantage, since new competitors will find it hard to match your setup. Phase three is real — in operational design, technology integration, and fulfillment partner selection. The brands that make that investment thoughtfully, with an understanding of where the structural difficulties actually sit, get through the transition faster and with fewer operational failures than those who discover the challenges reactively.
