Bogdan Shkarupa is the CEO and co-founder of NeuCurrent, an AI-powered CRM and omnichannel marketing platform helping small and mid-sized retailers transform first-party data into profitable customer relationships. From fashion and FMCG to grocery and luxury resale, NeuCurrent empowers brands to connect with their customers more intelligently – through real-time personalization across email, SMS, WhatsApp, and push.
With a background spanning finance, consulting, and technology, Bogdan is passionate about helping businesses unlock growth through smarter retention strategies and behavioural segmentation. His work proves that data doesn’t just drive performance – it builds relationships.
In this interview for the Balkan eCommerce Summit 2025, Bogdan shares why he’s stepping in as a brand ambassador, the critical role data plays in customer engagement, and what retailers must do today to compete – and win – in tomorrow’s eCommerce landscape.
What role do you think events like the Balkan eCommerce Summit 2025 play in driving growth and collaboration within the eCommerce space? And what motivated you personally to become a brand ambassador for the event?
For me, the Balkans eCommerce Summit isn’t just a key eCommerce event in the region — it’s a sign of something much much bigger. The event should be seen in the context of the overall development of eCommerce and retail innovation in Europe. Let me share some numbers with you:
- 20% YoY eCommerce growth in the Balkans (vs. 8% in Europe)
- 2x e-commerce market growth in Bulgaria in the past 4 years
- 8% of retail is online (compared to 15% in neighbouring Poland)
- 50% of the population are e-shoppers — massive headroom for growth
The Balkans are the fastest-growing eCommerce region in Europe. With many retailers starting from a clean slate, this is where the next wave of retail innovation will happen. This represents a huge opportunity for retail overall, and innovative companies such as NeuCurrent.
So if you ask what motivated me to become a brand ambassador – it is a big desire to be part of the event that enables and supports spectacular growth in eCommerce and retail innovation.
From your data consulting days, what’s the #1 challenge companies face when trying to get value from their customer data?
The #1 challenge is undoubtedly to get a clear understanding of how customer data can help companies identify pockets of value and ultimately generate revenue. Data shall become an enabler in your interactions with your customers. I will give you an example:
Our client The Originals, a second-hand luxury clothing e-commerce business, understands very well that their customers look for unique fashion finds, but also want to secure one-off items they really like. The company uses data to create a customer journey that is both highly enjoyable and fulfilling.
Here are some of the interactions the company have created to speak directly to customers using data:
- Real-time notifications when new items are listed in a customer’s favourite category
- Weekly personalized selections of new arrivals
- Special offers based on browsing or wishlist behaviour
- Back-in-stock alerts and reserved item reminders
- Tailored cross-sell recommendations aligned with personal style preferences
These kinds of interactions turn customer data into a revenue enabler, making each touchpoint feel relevant, timely, and valuable.
What’s the biggest mistake you see eCommerce businesses making when it comes to customer retention? Can you share a real-world example of how retention automation significantly impacted a retailer’s bottom line?
The biggest mistake is trying to improve customer retention without understanding what the problems in customer retention actually are.
Some retailers assume that just by sending offers and promotions indiscriminately to customers they can improve retention. One of our clients which, for obvious reasons, I will not name, lost 8% of annual revenue by doing customer retention wrong.
Enabling retention automation, we help e-commerce businesses understand what is right or wrong with their customer retention, whether it is a drop in average order value, customers not moving to the next purchase or churning much faster. Then our platform suggests relevant customer communications and segments that could be targeted to fix customer retention issues.
Finally, these communications can be sent directly to customers through the preferred channels (email, pushes, WhatsApp). By implementing retention automation our clients increase revenue by 30% YoY and LTV by 6%.
What are the most overlooked post-purchase touchpoints, and how can brands use behavioural data and segmentation to re-engage customers before they churn?
It depends quite a lot on the type of retailer. Post-purchase touchpoints for grocery stores are very different from high-end fashion retailers. You must know your customer. Data and predictive analytics can become a great enabler here.
One of our clients, a grocery retailer, identifies these touch points as abnormal changes in customer behaviour. For example, they identify customers who:
- stop buying from their favourite product category, or
- buy less frequently than they did in the past.
NeuCurrent’s segmentation tool allows retailers to identify such touch points and automate such in-depth customer segmentation.
You’ve worked across finance, consulting, and tech – what universal lessons apply across industries when it comes to customer engagement?
You must know your customers to create the best customer engagements. Best brands create their customers. But once customers are created, businesses have to work hard to sustain their relationship with customers. This is true for any relationship after a period of love comes what can become a long-lasting relationship if you do things right.
What excites you most about the future of eCommerce in the next 5 years, and where do you see NeuCurrent fitting into that vision?
What excites me most about the future of eCommerce is the rapid growth and unchartered waters the industry still has to explore.
While countries like the Netherlands are already highly digitized – with 90% of the population shopping online – markets like Bulgaria are just beginning to tap into their full potential, with only 53% currently engaging in eCommerce. This gap represents a huge growth opportunity.
At the same time, 69% of small and medium-sized retailers still rank low on the digital adoption scale according to the European E-commerce Association.
This means such retailers hardly use any digital tools or channels altogether to engage customers. This is estimated as more than 4m retailers in Europe. This is a big challenge and opportunity for the industry and tech.
This is where NeuCurrent fits in. Our vision is to empower mid-sized and small retail businesses with the same level of data intelligence and omnichannel capabilities as major enterprises – but in a way that’s far more accessible and cost-effective.
Bogdan Shkarupa’s belief that small and mid-sized retailers deserve enterprise-level tools is more than a mission – it’s a movement. His work with NeuCurrent shows how data-driven personalization, when done right, can turn every customer interaction into a revenue opportunity and every business into a retention powerhouse.
📅 Don’t miss the chance to learn from innovative thinkers like Bogdan Shkarupa at the Balkan eCommerce Summit 2025.
Visit balkanecommerce.com to get your ticket today!