Adrian Ienin (MinuneaNaturii.ro): "BusinessLeague Offers Transparency That Is Very Beneficial for Competition"

MinuneaNaturii.ro turns 11 this summer. Two pharmacists passionate about health built a business centered on wellbeing.

We spoke with Adrian Ienin about how e-commerce blends with the profession of a pharmacist, as well as the June 6–11 promotion, where shop customers and Marketers in BusinessLeague enjoy special deals and bonuses. And Adrian also told us:

Sales in BusinessLeague are predictable—we don't throw money away like what happened with Google

How did your story begin 11 years ago?

It started with our own change—changing our lifestyle. Even though I had been a competitive athlete in my life, during my last medical check-ups my blood pressure was borderline high. After I stopped playing sports, I was practically hypertensive; I had high blood pressure. I hadn't learned at the Faculty of Pharmacy that hypertension could be cured. I had learned that you have it for life.

My wife started doing nutrition and holistic health consulting and viewed the body as a whole. And throughout this whole story, she needed products. She would tell patients what to take, and patients couldn't really find them. And so, out of a need, Minunea Naturii was born, because there had to be a place where people could find everything they needed for their health.

And that's how it began. Very awkwardly from a business standpoint, because we were pharmacists, not businesspeople—we had no training in that direction. Even though we thought we did. Back then we thought we were great. We started with very small stocks.

From a business perspective, if you had to name one single thing you've learned over all these years, what would it be?

11 years, yes. One single thing: that it's good not to do things alone, and to find people who have already walked the path you want to take.

Today, what would you say are your most important business challenges?

Minunea Naturii remains a kind of tool to help people become healthier. The consulting part is important. We have remained pharmacists, even though we have developed as businesspeople over time.

The truth is we don't have a huge passion for business itself—we have a huge passion for health. And so the business has always suffered because instead of reading a business book, for example, we would read a health book. Or instead of going to a course on optimizing who-knows-what, we would go to a health course. And so on.

About BusinessLeague

Competition in general is welcome, because if you don't have a little stress, you don't have competition either. Now, I admit we don't look at the competition very much—we look very closely at ourselves and what we do. Maybe we're wrong, but somehow our focus isn't there and we don't have the time for it either. Still, it's a beneficial thing.

Why did we choose BusinessLeague? Because we wanted to reduce the dependency that an online business has on the main channels, on Google and Facebook. Meaning, to divide up that big pie. And BusinessLeague, even though it uses more or less the same tools, is a shared pie, so to speak.

How does affiliate marketing through BusinessLeague deliver compared to traditional channels?

For us, everything is much more predictable. Meaning that when Google changes the rules, we've had periods where sales dropped significantly or grew unjustifiably afterward, then dropped again and so on—because it's not something controllable.

Here in BusinessLeague, everything is much more controllable. We know that affiliates strive to bring in sales, and we only pay for the sales that actually happen, which is very beneficial for us. We don't throw money away like what happened a few times with Google, where mistakes were made and we practically lost money there.

Here, that doesn't really happen because that risk lies with the affiliates—who are much better prepared to do this than we are.

Challenges in BusinessLeague?

I think we tried once, at the suggestion of one of your colleagues, but as I said, we mostly log in when an affiliate writes to us—we don't really have time to sit and click around. What is interesting, though, is that the platform offers quite a lot of transparency, and we can see our competitors, for example, in certain contests we participated in.

The 11-Year Anniversary Campaign

Yes, we turn 11 on June 6, and we decided to run an anniversary campaign where, for 11 days, we offer an 11% discount both on the website and in our physical locations.

In addition, there is a contest for affiliates. The best affiliates win an extra bonus for three months—a kind of indexation on the commission they receive. Plus, those who want to specially promote Minunea Naturii during this period have the opportunity to earn 100 RON per video or per article they create.

Working with Marketers

It is important for them to be patient. Some expect immediate results, and some actually get them. But others don't. We expect them to ask questions—meaning to request various things from us—so that we all win.

Most popular products

Over time, the top-selling products have been very, very different. Meaning we don't have a best-seller list that stays the same from year to year, or even from quarter to quarter. With this huge influencer trend right now, various products pop up that sell extraordinarily well for two months, and after that they don't sell at all anymore. In general, during the summer people look for beach products for their vacations and various snacks.

What are your plans for the rest of the season?

In BusinessLeague, we want stability. Meaning we don't want to rush too far in any direction; we want to focus on stability and on growth that is as linear as possible.

Final thoughts?

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