Background

I have been working at the company for about 8 years, during which I have gone through several roles, and for nearly 2 years I have held the position of Marketing Manager. Speaking of ads, over time I worked with various marketing agencies until we decided to keep the advertising side in-house, giving us greater control over it.

The idea of affiliate marketing has been around for a long time, but it wasn't our focus until last year when we started discussions with 2Performant. In January we managed to launch it, and since then we have been growing.

About the accelerated growth in BusinessLeague

Yes, it was a very nice growth — maybe next year we'll reach Unicorns. We started from approximately 1,100 conversions in February and reached nearly 2,500 in April, which confirmed for us that the direction is a good one.

Several things coming together made a big difference. We are a well-known brand in the Romanian IT&C market - "GSMnet – your phone's store" turns 19 next month, and the company behind the brand has 21 years of experience.

On top of that, we have reached nearly 45,000 products on the site, we have an app developed for iOS and Android, and the speed with which orders leave our warehouse is a major advantage for us. In other words, we are attractive.

Which affiliates do you work best with?

It's too early to answer that question — let's have another conversation in a year. I'm glad I managed to meet a few of them at your event in April.

I try as much as possible to maintain a connection outside of BusinessLeague with affiliates for any issues that may arise during our collaboration. I believe it should be a relationship where all parties involved benefit, and for that, communication and mutual understanding are essential.

I hope not to miss too many events organized by you, because I can see you have a great community that we also want to be part of.

How does affiliate marketing deliver for you compared to other channels?

I can tell you it is an increasingly important channel for us, one that is broadening our horizons when it comes to our external sites. I like that, even though it is a single channel for us, it is very diversified, giving us access to different communities that would otherwise have been very difficult to reach.

Among the main benefits I would also mention the fact that we only pay for completed sales. I think it's important that, beyond having access to an affiliate's know-how, they also use their own budget, which makes them much more engaged and performance-oriented. That said, everything that comes from affiliate marketing doesn't replace the other communication channels we use — it complements them.

BusinessLeague in one word

Performance — because the entire ecosystem is built around concrete results.

19 years. Happy anniversary!

Thank you! Yes, we will mark this milestone with a dedicated anniversary campaign, running from June 26 to July 6. Customers can expect many products with very good discounts, as well as special surprises prepared for this anniversary. We want this anniversary to be a special one, and this is just the beginning — we're preparing a summer full of surprises and interesting campaigns for our community.

Gsmnet.de

Gsmnet.de is a passion project for us, which we see as one of the "younger brothers" of GSMnet.ro. Essentially, we wanted to take the experience and know-how built in Romania to international markets as well.

The current landscape is very favorable for cross-border eCommerce — the market is increasingly moving in this direction, and we feel it would be a shame not to ride this wave ourselves.

Affiliate marketing plays a very important role in our international growth strategy because it helps us scale faster and more efficiently. We gain access to affiliates' experience in markets and locations where we don't yet have enough advertising expertise, and this greatly helps us understand consumer behavior and the specifics of each market more quickly.

BusinessLeague, the world's first e-commerce championship

The gamification mechanic is interesting. The fact that it turns everything into an ongoing competition makes you much more engaged in all activities and constantly tracking performance. It essentially turns affiliate marketing into a competitive game where everyone tries to optimize, scale, and climb as high as possible in the rankings.

My favorite challenge is the Speed Run, where we even managed to win a few times.

Advice for affiliates

Communication — I am just one message away. I believe strongly in direct and fast collaboration, because when there is good communication, things move much faster, more efficiently, and much better results emerge on both sides.

Since launching on the platform, you've seen a massive influx of completely new customers — people who hadn't ordered in years. How do you view the balance between new vs. returning customers brought through affiliate marketing, and how much does this "fresh blood" weigh in your business decisions?

This is one of the most valuable things I have observed from affiliate marketing. I looked quite granularly at the orders coming through this channel and noticed a very high percentage of both completely new customers and customers reactivated after a long period of time.

For us, it matters a great deal to constantly grow our active customer base, as well as the retention opportunities that come along with these new or reactivated customers.

Ultimately, I believe affiliate marketing is not just about immediate conversions, but also about long-term growth that supports the healthy development of our business.