“We received EUR3.5 million worth of orders, more than the emag.bg sales since the start of 2013,” Iulian Stanciu said.
This is the first time the retailer held a Black Friday sale in Bulgaria, a market where it entered in mid last year, discounting several hundred products from phones and laptops to home appliances, using the design and offer structure as in Romania on November 22.
The companies whose products were part of the Black Friday offer in Bulgaria include Lenovo, Acer and Romania’s Visual Fan (Allview) and Network One Distribution (Serioux).
“It was an event beyond our most optimistic expectations. We had made a bet in our office the day before and estimated 28,000 products ordered. We had 52,000 products ordered,” Stanciu said, adding that no other major retailer competed with it.
“We estimate that more than 10,000 Bulgarians placed an order online for the first time on this occasion. (…) We set a new trend in the development of the online commerce in Bulgaria, too.”
In Romania, eMag sold EUR23 million worth on Black Friday.
The retailer expects EUR200 million revenue this year. Its majority owner is South Africa’s Naspers group. Naspers has acquired several companies in Romania in recent years, including electronic payment solutions provider ePayment (now PayU).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)