Tudor Manea, the general manager of eMAG, the biggest online retailer in Romania, has taken over as CEO of the company from Iulian Stanciu, who will serve as executive chairman.

The appointment comes as the retailer announced "an evolution of the executive team that will lead the regional expansion of the company" and investments amounting to over RON 3.2 billion (EUR 655,737,704) in the next three years to support the accelerated development of e-commerce.

Manea, 37, has been working with eMAG for 16 years, the last six as general manager. He worked on setting up eMAG's technology department and the company's international expansion. "He was the 23rd employee of eMAG and grew together with the company. When he joined the company, the team had just over 20 people and, although his role was in the IT team, on the way home, he delivered packages to customers, like the other colleagues," the company said. Manea specialized in IT after graduating from the Faculty of Electronics of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. He later continued his education in eMAG with an EMBA from the Maastricht School of Management and several executive programs at Stanford University, USA.

Iulian Stanciu will remain involved in shaping the development strategy of the company as well as in analyzing and approving the investments and budgets next to the new CEO.

 "The investments we will be making over the next three years will help us offer clients a wider variety of products and better prices, speed in delivery as well as a simplified payment process. Through the infrastructure we are building, we also aim to help local entrepreneurs make the shift to online easier by transferring them our experience", Tudor Manea, CEO eMAG, said.

"We believe there are plenty of opportunities ahead with the development of the digital economy. We will therefore accelerate our investments to turn eMAG into a regional ecosystem of technology and e-commerce," Iulian Stanciu, Executive Chairman eMAG, said. 

Of the RON 3.2 billion eMAG is investing over the next three years, RON 785 million (EUR 160.8 million) will go into international expansion, RON 447 million (EUR 91.5 million) towards the development of Romanian technology, RON 251 million (EUR 51.4 million) will go into the development of the digital entrepreneurship through the Marketplace platform, RON 990 million (EUR 204.7 million) into the development of logistics services and RON 740 million (EUR 151.6 million) will be invested in other companies, Stanciu explained. 

In Hungary, where the company merged with Extreme Digital two years ago, it aims to reach sales of EUR 1 billion in the next five years. In Bulgaria, eMAG will continue to expand its physical presence after opening its first showroom in Sofia last year and will focus on developing and improving its services, the company said.

A budget of RON 447 million will be allocated for "the development of Romanian technology that will be exported to all countries where eMAG is present and which will benefit other entrepreneurs in the eMAG ecosystem." eMAG's tech team, which currently counts over 700 people, will be expanded by another 100 this year, the company said.

eMAG Marketplace, which is estimated to reach 45,000 Romanian sellers in the next three years from today's 25,000, will receive an infusion of capital of RON 251 million. In 2020, the volume of sales made by the Romanian sellers in the eMAG Marketplace increased by over 90% compared to 2019, reaching 25 million products.

Furthermore, the company will continue investing in logistics for digital infrastructure: the new logistics hub in Joita, Giurgiu, will become fully operational in September 2022, and the easybox network will be doubled in the next period to make delivery easier, predictable, and fast, eMAG said. 

The company also allotted RON 45 million for learning programs over the next three years for its employees. The programs are run through partnerships with universities such as Harvard, Yale, or Stanford. It also continues the Future 25 program through which young talents are trained to become leaders in e-commerce. 

At the same time, eMAG plans to invest RON 740 million both in already well-known companies, where it holds shares, as well as in other technology companies through the eMAG Ventures investment program. So far, it invested in fast delivery company Tazz by eMAG and courier company Sameday.

(Photo: Lenutaidi/ Dreamstime)

simona@romania-insider.com