Dealing in discounts

As consumers tighten their belts and companies try to survive, Luciana Zamfirescu seized on the zeitgeist by adopting the collective buying concept and has built her business into one of the major players on the local market. She talked to BR about the genesis of her company and her strategy: today Romania, tomorrow Europe.

Anda Sebesi

Luciana Zamfirescu, managing partner of TopDeals.ro, decided to become an entrepreneur in 2003. Her professional background is varied, as she spent ten years working for different multinational companies as trainer, sales manager and deputy general manager.

As an entrepreneur, Zamfirescu has embraced innovation, with the latest business she has launched being TopDeals.ro (www.topdeals.ro), an online collection of discounts offered by local restaurants, pubs, clubs, beauty salons, spas, theaters, cinemas, concerts and many other products and services.

The formula is simple: a user creates her or his own account on the site and agrees to receive daily offers. A specific offer can be taken up directly from www.topdeals.ro, with the customer paying by card or through bank transfer. Offers posted on the site are valid for three to four days, not just 24 hours as is typical on such websites. The company takes a fee for each transaction completed through its website.

“I was familiar with the concept of collective buying from the US and I thought it would be a very interesting business to launch in Romania. Initially, when we started to build this project there was no such website, at least not using our specific format. But by the time we went live, there were about four-five,” says Zamfirescu. The businesswoman initially intended to operate as a franchise – livingsocial.com – but later realized that would not have worked as well.

The idea to set up TopDeals.ro was prompted by the current economic conditions, as consumers have less money in their pockets and businesspeople are striving to keep their companies afloat. “Our concept involves free advertising while the customer pays a very low price for a specific product or service. In short, the current downturn generated this business and it is the right business for the right economic context. On top of that, it represents a win-win situation for all the parties involved in the process,” says the entrepreneur.

Asked to identify the most difficult moment her business has faced, Zamfirescu says that it is important to draw a clear distinction between hard times and the general prudence required to run such a business.

“You need to be very careful to make sure that customers who buy from TopDeals.ro enjoy high quality services despite paying a lower price. In addition, our partners have been advised to treat customers who have vouchers from TopDeals.ro as the best and most loyal ones, in order to make our promotional campaign very efficient and to have a good return, both in terms of new business and customer retention,” adds the entrepreneur.

If she started another company, Zamfirescu would draw on all of her experiences in business, because each of them has had an impact to her and she has learned a lot from all the situations she has faced. “No one has the recipe for success in business from the very beginning, so each step you take – right or wrong – serves its own purpose: making you more experienced. Plus, it offers you the opportunity to extend yourself,” says the businesswoman. “Each experience helps you to evolve. So I treat all of them as useful learning experiences.”

Zamfirescu chose to set up a business in an environment full of professional hurdles, but as she is a bold entrepreneur she looks on the bright side of that decision.

“There are a lot of challenges but at the end of the day it is all about foreseeing the dynamic of the business and adapting rapidly to the new context. The collective buyer is a new and successful concept but it is changing rapidly. If you are not on top of things and careful you will be left behind. And after that it is very difficult to regain your previous position on the market,” cautions the entrepreneur.

Among the many challenges inherent in her line of work, Zamfirescu is active on a pretty crowded market – she says about 100 similar sites have appeared locally in the last three months.

“But our real competition is the top three-four players on the market,” says the managing partner. On top of that she says that the market positioning of her site – top services for premium customers – is what differentiates her firm from the crowd. “Besides, we were both the innovator and pioneer on this market,” adds Zamfirescu.

As for her future plans, Zamfirescu says she intends to transform www.topdeals.ro into a market leader from all perspectives and to expand its activity on other European markets, most likely next year.

anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

Company profile TopDeals.ro

Established: 2010

Number of employees: 12

2011 estimated turnover: EUR 1 million

Initial investment: EUR 30,000