The Balkan eCommerce Summit 2024 is an inspiring two-day forum scheduled to take place at Arena Sofia, Bulgaria, on the 4th and 5th of April, 2024. Event organizer, Nikola Ilchev, one of the most influential eCommerce figures in the Balkans, promises an impressive event that will bring fresh perspectives to the e-commerce sector in the Balkan region.
Nikola Ilchev has emerged as the most prominent figure in Bulgaria and the Balkans in the realm of e-commerce and cross-border online stores. As the founder of the eCommerce Academy, Ilchev is at the forefront of uniting the e-commerce industry, offering valuable resources through multimedia content and conferences. He is a distinguished speaker recognized across international e-commerce conferences and orchestrates some of Bulgaria’s most notable eCommerce events, including the widely acclaimed Balkan eComerce Summit – https://balkanecommerce.com/.
Nikola has a lot of experience in building communities, and his latest project promises to unite the Balkan countries in the field of e-commerce, improve cross-boarder relations in terms of business in the region, and provide them with a starting point for easier communication.
In 2023, he managed to visit 7 Balkan countries and participate in the World eCommerce Forum held in Istanbul, Turkey,
InnFest 2023 held in Tirana, Albania,
eCommerce Talks and GPeC Summit 2023 held in Bucharest, Romania,
CRO Commerce 2023, held in Zagreb, Croatia,
eCommerce Day held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Redefining e-Commerce: A(I) New Era, held in Skopje, North Macedonia and
eCommerce & Digital Marketing Expo 2023 held in Thessaloniki, Greece,
where he was a speaker, moderator or special guest.
The main unifying theme was cross-border e-commerce, online stores, and marketplaces, and opportunities for new partnerships by country in the field of e-commerce.
Nikola, tell us about your Balkan tour, about the events you took part and in, what was unifying and completely different about them.
In 2023, I was able to visit all the leading e-commerce events in the Balkans, which allowed me to meet and exchange experiences and ideas with people from all these markets. The truth is that they are different in terms of mentality, attitudes towards online supply and shopping, level of penetration of digitization, Internet penetration, and many others, but there is one theme that unites them and that is cross-border trade. Regardless of how young or mature the market is in each of the Balkan countries, every online retailer is optimistic about starting operations in at least one foreign market. It is as if it is already quite natural to have a branch of your online store in at least one neighboring market, and this is completely understandable because there are already many services that allow an easier start of cross-border activity.
What was the main topic during these events, what are online store owners and service providers most excited or worried about? What is important to them?
With everyone wanting to sell to foreign markets, one of the hottest topics is how to make it happen with the least risk and with the lowest possible investment on the part of the business. Naturally, this leads traders to marketplace platforms that provide such opportunities, especially those that operate in two or more marketplaces. To win the “buy button” on a given platform, the various strategies and algorithms that enable this are also a common theme.
Lower prices, faster and economical deliveries, better return and exchange conditions, better warranty conditions, and the like are some of the highlights that are always the focus of attention in lectures, comment panels, or discussions during the holidays.
What advice do you give during these events? Do you have ready steps for easier entry into foreign markets, especially the Balkan ones? What do you advise them to watch out for?
The advice I personally always give to companies starting operations in a new market is to check everything in advance and arrange their processes carefully. The purpose of this is for them to be sure that everything is well arranged, every single aspect has been thought of in advance, and they will not have to make difficult openings on the fly, which in a new, unfamiliar market can prove difficult. To help all Balkan merchants looking at a neighboring market, we have developed a special eCommerce Checklist for cross-border trade, which allows merchants to check 50 factors in their business before taking the important step.
Link to the form
I would recommend that anyone familiarize themselves with this list and try to check everything on it before opening a business in a new market. The list is completely free and available to everyone.
You and other experts conducted a survey with Mediapost Hit Mail Bulgaria about online commerce in Central and Eastern Europe, would you summarize which of the results surprised or impressed you, and which data from 2023 will predetermine changes in 2024 in this area?
The results we reached with this study did not surprise me, as I have been following this information for years and watching the processes in all the neighboring countries. What I can highlight as a highlight and which continues to amaze me is the fact that a large part of businesses have not yet started any activities related to selling goods online, and nearly 19% of those asked do not even intend to have such activity in the company. A survey also showed something that I made as an observation during my visits to the other Balkan countries – that 54 of businesses selling online also operate in at least one foreign market, through their own store or marketplace platform. And most importantly, for which I am happy, the data showed growth, starting from 2022, when the survey was first conducted. Growth in the number of businesses operating online and their desire to conduct cross-border online trade.
Where does Bulgaria stand in comparison among the Balkan and Eastern and Central European countries in terms of ecommerce?
Bulgaria, against the background of its neighbors from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, is in a very good position. We are still seeing growth in online sales, an increase in the total number of merchants, and a significant improvement in the environment. It is obvious that Bulgaria is becoming an interesting destination for many Western stores and those from Central Europe, because there has been an extremely strong presence of such in the last 2 years. At the end of 2023, according to data from our partners, the orders placed by Bulgarians on foreign sites have reached serious volumes.
What is the main goal of the event you are organizing – Balkan eCommerce Summit? How can it be useful and to whom? Is it only for online merchants?
Balkan eCommerce Summit 2024 is not our first international event. All the previous ones aimed to gather in one place, in Bulgaria, experts from different countries and e-commerce service providers to help local merchants start business in new markets. This year we set ourselves a slightly bigger goal – to bring together merchants and service providers from 15+ countries through quality content and a huge networking area, with over 150+ exhibitions, to provide an opportunity for all of them to learn about the advantages of neighboring markets and find the easiest and most affordable way to start trading there. For this reason, leading store platforms, marketplaces, courier companies, payment institutions and many others participate in the event.
Would you give 3 key reasons why guests from neighboring countries should travel to Sofia specifically for the Balkan Ecommerce Summit?
Every time I am asked this question I answer like this:
Quality content delivered by international experts;
Huge networking opportunities with business representatives from over 15 countries;
Researching new and different service providers in an expo area with over 150 exhibitors.
Is there a Balkan organization to provide market data, to unite online traders and service providers in the region?
In each of the Balkan countries, some Associations take care of creating and growing ecosystems of electronic merchants. They make efforts to have up-to-date data and information about the markets, as well as to organize local conferences, trainings, meetings, and more. Recently, in the Western Balkans region, which includes Serbia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, and Montenegro, the Balkan eCommerce Alliance has also been operating, which tries to help easier cross-border cooperation between these markets. This is a very necessary structure since these countries are not part of the European Union and the movement of goods in them has a rather complicated regime. There is no similar structure in the eastern part of the Balkans, as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary are part of the EU and there are no serious obstacles for us to organize economic activity in new markets.
What do you expect after the event on the 4th and 5th in Arena Sofia? Do you think that it will result in a visible change in online trade in the Balkans? Create a new hub or unifying unit for the needs of members of this community?
My expectations are mostly related to the fact that many businesses will look more and more boldly at new markets and find new partners to help them with this. The event has already become something of a hub that gathers leading companies and experts and provides an opportunity to exchange contacts, ideas, and know-how. Whether this can grow into some other organization is a matter of desire on the part of its participants.
Last question: what brand new do you expect to see in online commerce in 2024, something taken from the West, from the East or not existing before, related to technology, with AI?
Perhaps the only thing that seems to me both new and easy to implement in business would be various AI tools that would allow any organization to be more efficient in terms of content generation, data processing and analysis of existing ones. AI has huge potential and we are already seeing many companies taking advantage of it.
Join us in the Balkan Ecommerce Summit 2024 in Sofia on April 4th and 5th and you will find out more!
Naročnik oglasnega sporočila: Balkan eCommerce Summit 2024.