Alex Garmash for Manager magazine: Business can be digitalized, but trust can’t
Alex Garmash, our Merchant Ecosystem Lead, was invited by the leading business media in Bulgaria – Manager magazine – to share key insights into the bigger picture of retail and e-commerce in our region. He shared our unique perspective of working with over 30,000 physical stores and more than 5,000 e-commerce players across Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, which empowers us to quickly identify shopping trends and effective AI tools, driving faster sales for our partners. Read more:
Alex Garmash is “Merchant Ecosystem” Leader at tbi bank. He fosters collaboration with the bank’s merchant partners across Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece. With over 25 years of leadership experience in banking, consulting (McKinsey & Company) and other sectors, Alex has worked across various markets, from Brazil and Thailand to Australia and Switzerland. His goal is to turn the tbi bank app into the go-to platform for interaction between clients and merchants.
Alex , based on your international experience, how do you view retail and online commerce today compared to five years ago?
Globally and as well as in Bulgaria, the sector is transforming into a hyper-connected ecosystem. Five years ago, ~ 30% of transactions were via mobile, but today, it’s 62%. While personalization with AI is increasing order value by 18%, according to the European eCommReport 2024. However, omnichannel remains dominant: 74% of Bulgarian consumers still combine the convenience of online shopping with the security of physical stores, according to our internal data.
At tbi bank, we support over 30,000 physical partner stores with instalment payments for their customers. And on the other, we provide fast checkout and convenient instalments for over 5,000 eComm players across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. For us it’s not about technology; it’s about growing our merchants’ sales and helping their customers to split the purchases into instalments.
Since 2019, online shopping in Bulgaria has doubled, from 22% to 50%, according to the report you mentioned. What does this mean for physical stores and the competitiveness of e-commerce?
In fact, B2C eComm turnover grew 2.6 times in Bulgaria from 2019 to 2024, reaching 2.34B EUR (EU eComm Report for 2024). The growth rate of 17% was the fastest among all EU member states, while future growth in 2025-2027 is expected at ~14% CAGR (ECDB EU Overview for 2024).
This growth came from increased purchasing capacity of Bulgarian consumers. But also took the growth from the physical stores, which grew at ~4-5% in the last year, in line with GDP growth and nominal prices. So, in short – we see 15-30% growth rates for our merchants, who embraced eComm as one of the channels. While merchants with physical stores only demonstrate flat growth or even 5-10% decline in sales due to more aggressive eComm competitors.
And100% digital self-service process to provide customers with quick payment plans through their smart phones. This allowed even our instore only merchants to digitise customer experience and break the trend in declining sales.
Overall, physical stores are transforming into experience centers, offering unique and personalized services for customers.While 87% of our retail partners report up to 15% increase in traffic to their online stores through the shopping section in the tbi bank app. This symbiosis between digital flexibility and personalized service reflects how merchants combine innovative physical and online strategies in today’s competitive environment.
Engaging Generation Z is a challenge for many sectors. What strategies are merchants using to engage them? And what about tbi bank?
Merchants are striving to meet Generation Z’s demand for instant gratification and authenticity by running campaigns with micro-influencers on TikTok and gamified loyalty programs—such as rewarding discounts for app registrations. But social media become also a powerful sales channel targeted at Gen Z. ECDB 2024 report shares that over 67% of consumers globally have already bought something through social media platforms.
We are working with our merchants across countries and industries to prepare them for this trend. For example, in Romania over 31% of inquiries about used car sales are coming to our car dealers through TikTok. While 2-3 years ago our merchants were laughing about an opportunity to use social media for sales.
