Blog " Building a Great Business Takes Years
The triple-header event featuring Sales Club Conference 2026, Leadership Forum 2026, and Women's Entrepreneurship Day 2026 brings you face-to-face with some of Bulgaria’s most successful and visionary entrepreneurs.
Among them is Ivan Alexandrov, Founder and CEO of online retail power player eBag. As the undisputed market leader in the domestic FMCG e-commerce sector, the platform delivers fast, seamless online shopping to tens of thousands of Bulgarian households. Driven by an innovative approach and razor-sharp logistics, eBag continually scales its product range, setting new industry benchmarks across the entire digital retail landscape.
At our conference, Ivan Alexandrov will take the stage on a executive leadership panel. Here, exclusively for #SCCBLOG readers, he offers a look under the hood into his management philosophy, innovation pipeline, growth strategy, and why patience is a key business unit metric.
eBag has evolved into one of the most recognizable online retail brands in Bulgaria. What key strategic decisions drove you to this scale?
Relentless customer-centricity and playing the long game. Right from day one, we decided to build end-to-end, in-house logistics to own the complete user journey—from curated product discovery all the way to last-mile delivery. It’s certainly the harder route, but it gives us total control to optimize service quality continuously and build a bulletproof, sustainable business model.
What role does marketing play in scaling an online venture?
For me, product is always king. In our model, the "product" encompasses the whole offering: portfolio curation, competitive pricing, delivery speed, and customer service. These core fundamentals drive acquisition and, more importantly, customer retention. Marketing is critical, but it's an amplifier—it can never fix a fundamentally flawed product-market fit.
How has consumer behavior shifted since eBag launched in 2015?
When we went live in 2015, ordering groceries online was a niche convenience. Today, it’s a mainstream daily routine. On top of that, a new generation of digital natives is coming of age—consumers who don't view e-grocery as an alternative to brick-and-mortar retail, but as their default buying channel.
How does eBag navigate macroeconomic headwinds while maintaining high growth?
We maintain a laser focus on two core operational pillars: meeting customer demand and continuous process optimization. As we drive operational efficiency, our fulfillment cost per order drops. This margin optimization allows us to scale profitably, maintain business model resilience, and pass value back to our consumers through competitive pricing.
Beyond your strong presence in major metropolitan areas, you've expanded fulfillment to smaller locations like Samokov, Borovets, and Klisura. What is the infrastructure strategy behind scaling logistics to this footprint?
These regions fall within reasonable proximity to Sofia, allowing us to route regional logistics with minimal additional capex or resource overhead. Right now, our primary focus is heavily on process automation and optimization within our main fulfillment center. The objective is to build a high-efficiency operational playbook that can seamlessly scale nationwide.
What is the highest-volume product category at eBag?
Unsurprisingly, our top-performing vertical is "Dairy & Eggs." These high-frequency essentials feature in almost every basket purchase.
You will be participating in the "Successful Leaders" panel. How do you lead your team, and what defines an effective executive?
My leadership playbook centers on establishing clear strategic alignment while empowering team members with high autonomy to drive execution. A true leader's job is to recruit top talent, set target KPIs, and foster an agile culture where decision-making happens fast. At the end of the day, leadership performance is strictly measured by team output.
How automated are eBag's backend operations, and how are you integrating AI into daily workflows?
Automation is an ongoing operational flywheel. Step one is assembling a cross-functional team that understands process mechanics deeply and knows how to automate them efficiently. Then you tackle bottlenecks systematically, bottleneck by bottleneck.
AI follows the exact same implementation model. We don't isolate it as a shiny standalone initiative; we integrate it organically across daily business units—data analytics, knowledge management, operational communications, and data-driven decision-making.
E-commerce is arguably the most hyper-competitive vertical today. What drives customer lifetime value and brand loyalty when switching costs are so low?
The entire end-to-end customer experience package. That includes product assortment, UI/UX presentation, value pricing, active customer support, delivery SLA accuracy, and service reliability. A customer might overlook a minor operational hiccup, but long-term loyalty hinges on consistent brand delivery across every touchpoint.
What is the biggest challenge you've faced on your entrepreneurial journey, and what key lesson did you take away?
I’m wired to solve a challenge, pivot quickly, and keep my eyes on the horizon. In business, you're rarely wiped out by a single catastrophic event. It’s usually an accumulation of minor operational friction points. I've learned to tackle issues sequentially, iterate solutions, and maintain forward momentum.
What advice would you give founder-stage entrepreneurs building their initial go-to-market plan?
Build around something you are genuinely passionate about, and don't expect instant ROI. Building a high-impact business is a multi-year marathon. Without founder-market fit and passion for the space, you simply won't have the endurance required to play the long game and scale.
