Drujno.bg is an aggregator for offers from collective shopping websites in Bulgaria, which operates under the slogan "All the offers from the better websites". The project was launched by Silvia Dimitrova (Founder) in February 2012 with approximately 6 months prior preparations period which started in the autumn of 2011 with the founding of the company.
‘Drujno’ is the Bulgarian word for ‘Together’ which basically represents the whole idea behind the collective shopping mechanism.
With education in the area of IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications) and Business Management and having worked in established companies with long history, Silvia wanted to materialize the experience in a personal baby project and felt an inner urge to create a “product” from the scratch with all that belongs to it – the initial research & strategic planning, the actual implementation of the business idea and the promotion of it.
Silvia says "Back when I started, the market in which my aggregator operates was at the last stages of the 'Rising star' cycle of the life of a product. At the end of 2011 and in 2012 the number of players on the field was still huge but the processes of the merging’s and buy outs have already started. So knowing I lack the financial resources to compete with the strongest players in acquiring market shares, I choose the niche approach, developed an exclusive product and positioned it as such. The slogan does in fact represent my business philosophy – I don't work with all available partner websites but have filtered only those that met my criteria: reliable customer service and professionalism in the business partnerships. Based on the conscious & subconscious meaning of the colours the choice of purple as dominant colour of the website does further contribute to the philosophy of exclusivity".
Currently partnered with around 20+ websites, Drujno.bg is privately owned and managed by Silvia himself as he says “It is basically one man show with the invaluable assistance of my software agency and accountant”
Maintaining relationships with the loyal returning customer base and acquiring new customers with constant communicational and promotional tools, but no more huge investments, are being planned at Drunjo.bg. The funding at the company was done with personal means; the initial investment being around USD 2500.
On asking, how was it for him to grow a company all on his own in the preliminary stage, Silvia recollects "The initial half a year before the launch was very stressful – constant expenditures with no return in sight, delays due to external factors, bugs in the system and bad experiences with unreliable partners. Yet I am grateful for the difficulties and troubles because they resulted in me fine tuning the initial concept which led to the new and better slogan – All the offers from the BETTER websites".
With a simple message of "Get up One more time than you have fallen down!" for young entrepreneur, Silvia thinks that without self-doubt which prompts you to action and gives birth to new ideas, there is no progress!
With an appealing belief that there are no problems, just issues- with pending solutions, Silvia is all set to bring Drunjo.bg into one of the top players in the market. We wish him all the luck.
Advertisements