Background info

Shopilo is, simply put, the place where we check discount codes for you, so you don't pay full price when shopping online. We gather offers from hundreds of stores, test them to make sure they work, and present them in a clean place — no intrusive ads, no registration required to see a code.

Simple as it sounds, the "verification" part is half the work. An expired code or a fake offer instantly kills trust, so we have a team that tests daily, plus an in-house system that automatically flags when something stops working.

My role is a combination of Partnership Management, Content Owner, and Business Development. On a typical day I handle opening new partnerships across all the European markets we operate in, securing exclusive discount codes for our community, staying on top of the newest and best-performing store campaigns and highlighting them across various channels, and making sure offers are up to date and accurately presented. It's not glamorous, but I like this balance between strategy and hands-on work.

9 out of 10

Since 2012 we've been present with DontPayFull on English-speaking markets: US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. We started in 2012 out of a very concrete frustration. You'd shop online, see a "promo code" field at checkout, start searching on Google, and nine out of ten codes you found didn't work. We said: there has to be a better way. That's how DontPayFull was born.

In nearly fourteen years since, we've grown organically. Today we have 34 full-time employees and over 40 external collaborators — "deal hunters" as we call them — spread across multiple countries. We cover over 25,000 stores globally, have been members of the Performance Marketing Association since 2016, and work directly with all the major international affiliate networks: CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, Awin, Skimlinks, Impact, and BusinessLeague.

Shopilo is the natural next step: if DontPayFull was our answer for English-speaking markets, Shopilo is the version for non-English European markets. We launched it in 2026 in Romania, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Denmark, and Austria using the same technology, the same verification algorithms, and the same editorial discipline we've built over more than a decade. In Romania we're newcomers, launched in October 2025. The technology and experience behind it, however, are those built since 2012.

The fact that, even though we're talking about an international brand, our team has been based in Romania from the very beginning is, honestly, a detail we're proud of. We're building a global product from here.

How important is the technology behind it, and how does it help you concretely?

Very important, but without the hype. We're not a company that slaps "AI" on everything. Technology helps us do three things that a classic coupon site does manually and poorly: verification at scale, understanding the context of each store, and multi-market coverage with local identity.

We have three pieces of technology we've invested years in:

The first is our code verification system. It runs continuously, flagging what's expired, what's new, what's appeared across all the communication channels of our partner stores. We combine automated verification with human verification, because neither alone is enough.

The second is our Chrome extension, "DontPayFull Automatic Coupon Finder." It detects when you're at checkout on one of the 25,000+ stores we cover and automatically tests the relevant codes, keeping the best one. For the user, it means a discount without any hassle. For us, it means real, real-time feedback about which codes actually work.

The third is the part no one sees, but that makes the rest possible: a proprietary platform running DontPayFull across six English-speaking markets and Shopilo across seven European markets — soon many more — each with a local identity, local content, and local partners. We also invest heavily in structured data, meaning the way search engines understand our pages. Here I believe we're among the most advanced in the coupon niche globally.

What are the major differences between the Romanian market and those in the US or Ireland, for example, when it comes to affiliate marketing?

There are a few differences that jump out immediately once you cross the border.

The first has to do with the maturity of the e-commerce ecosystem. In the US or UK you have tens of thousands of online stores investing in affiliate marketing, with a massive pool of buyers. Competition is intense — both in capturing users' attention and retaining them through loyalty programs, sophisticated upselling systems, and targeted discount codes.

This means greater complexity for both buyers and stores, but also a well-established habit of searching for the best deal from a wide range of options.

An American or Irish shopper actively looks for a code before checkout — it's a reflex formed over ten, fifteen years. In Romania, that behavior exists, but it's much less widespread. Many shoppers don't even think to look for a code. That's also an opportunity, honestly, because the market is still being educated, and whoever positions themselves well now will be there when that reflex becomes standard.

When it comes to affiliate systems, there are a few major differences. International networks have invested heavily in expanding store portfolios and sophisticated tracking systems, with considerable transaction volumes they intermediate.

That said, the level of support affiliates receive is extremely low. Affiliate programs are built with a fairly low degree of transparency and minimal regulatory rules from the networks. The volumes of active stores and publishers lead to reduced quality control. The data made available to both stores and publishers is minimal, making the discovery of new relationships and campaign optimization a lottery that costs time and money.

BusinessLeague offers all players in affiliate marketing a generous range of data and transparency unseen in other networks. This allows rapid evaluation of opportunities, much easier discovery of partners, and near-instant calibration with what's happening in the market. The network strictly enforces the rules of the game, and violations are quickly identified and corrected.

As an affiliate, you can strategically plan your growth and build partnerships at your own pace, knowing that affiliate programs have great stability. Notice periods, payment speed and security, and clear terms and conditions are all clear advantages for BusinessLeague in the eyes of an international affiliate. Not to mention the level of team support, which doesn't compare to what I've encountered on other markets.

What types of stores are you looking to work with in BusinessLeague? Do you have a specific profile?

Yes, we have a fairly clear — though not rigid — profile. We're interested in stores that regularly use discount codes as part of their conversion and retention strategy. Niches where a discount code genuinely moves the needle in the purchase decision.

The reality is that our users are price-sensitive, and we can intervene precisely at that final point where a small extra incentive can make the difference between an abandoned cart and a completed purchase. That's why exclusive codes are our primary objective — even more so than monetization itself.

Beyond that, what matters a great deal to us is whether the affiliate team is active, responds to us, gives us real codes, and involves us in campaigns. A silent program works for neither side.

What are your expectations regarding progress in the competition?

We're more realistic than ambitious at any cost. We want stable, long-term growth, which is why we've chosen to grow the number of stores gradually and in a controlled way. We're at the point where we're focusing on the technical and operational fundamentals that will fuel our future growth.

That said, we enjoy competition and have a team that works hard. If the results put us in the top spots, all the better. But the real success metric for us at the end of the competition will be how many new partnerships we've built, how many users we've brought into the coupon space who weren't there before, and how many stores have discovered that a well-built coupon site can be a predictable sales channel, not just a last-click queue.

Have you tested other affiliate platforms? What differences do you see between them and BusinessLeague?

I've largely answered this in question 4. We've worked for fourteen years with the largest international networks: CJ Affiliate, Rakuten, Awin, ShareASale, TradeDoubler, Skimlinks, Impact, Performance Horizon, AvantLink, Pepperjam. In Romania, we're actively focusing 90% of our portfolio on 2Performant/BusinessLeague.

The large international networks have very well-developed tools: stable APIs, detailed reports, on-time payments, technical support. However, they sometimes fall short on the relationship side — you're one account among thousands and can rarely negotiate personalized terms unless you're very large.

Local networks, both in the West and in Romania, win on closeness to the store. You speak directly with the team, you quickly adjust a campaign, you receive exclusive codes.

BusinessLeague is interesting because it emphasizes direct relationships and competitive visibility, which forces you to demonstrate real value rather than just waiting in line. For a publisher looking to build a reputation in a new market, that format makes sense. For a store, it's an opportunity to see who's worth building long-term relationships with.

How do you see affiliate marketing evolving in the medium-to-long term — both in Romania and in Western markets?

In the medium term, I see two forces pulling in different directions that will reshape the industry.

On one hand, the pressure around privacy, the disappearance of third-party cookies, changes in browsers, and — especially — the rapid growth of zero-click searches from major search engines will put pressure on tracking systems, the way attribution works, and the very philosophy behind partnerships and affiliate marketing in general.

On the other hand, the ease with which a concept can be launched or copied using AI will lead in the short term to a massive scaling of competition across most affiliate niches, often with dubious content quality. This opens space for players who have built proprietary technology, trust, transparency, and clean relationships with retailers. We're in that category, and we say it without false modesty.

The evolution will go deeper: tighter integrations with retailers, content produced with AI assistance but verified and owned by humans, media-commerce partnerships between large publishers and brands. The difference will be made by those who understand that affiliate marketing can no longer be a passive channel. You have to bring real value to the purchase decision.

In Romania, paradoxically, the maturation of affiliate marketing will happen faster than it took in the West, because we're starting from a much stronger base of transparency, product philosophy, and ethical principles. The growth potential is significant.