Russia E-commerce Intelligence

Ozon's official seller-center notice confirms previously announced rates were cut a further 3 percentage points from Aug 28, 2026, applying to almost all categories across FBO, FBS and realFBS. The planned Aug 30 region-tiered discount scheme was dropped in favour of a flat, unconditional 3 p.p. cut — sellers may supply any cluster without regional constraints. The same support package also waives placement fees at affected warehouses, removes non-local sales markups in affected clusters, offers free transfers from closed warehouses and cross-docking rerouting, waives the 'payment per order' tool fee for warehouse-caused cancellations, and suspends FBS penalties for exceeding the error index (currently until Sep 22); post-payment for FBO orders was also switched off in 38 regions. Seller Maxim Popov told RBC Radio that Ozon and Wildberries raised commissions by at least 15% combined over the past year, so a 3 p.p. cut is modest — but he still called it 'the only genuinely good support measure'. Seller Maria Rusinova put her own uninsured loss at around RUB 1m and said sellers mainly need the platform to speed up damage assessment and insurance payouts.

RWB's press service announced a new tab in the seller dashboard's 'Financial reports' section, generating damage reports separately for each affected logistics site, listing product name, Wildberries nomenclature, seller SKU and quantity. The section is being rolled out in stages and should be available on the seller portal within 24 hours. The company is still assessing the aftermath and refining data, so reports will be updated and sellers will get a new version with a fresh date. RWB representative Dmitry Borshchevsky said the company has completed two payout tranches: the first covering over 88,000 entrepreneurs, the second over 97,000. RBC recaps that since mid-July WB facilities were hit in the Moscow region, Krasnodar, Stavropol Krai, Penza, Udmurtia, Volgograd, Tatarstan, Samara, Vladimir, Leningrad, Tver and Tula regions, plus Kotovsk in Tambov region (destroyed by fire overnight Aug 26); Ozon sites have also been struck since the second half of August, with its Ufa facility hit overnight Aug 27.

Ozon announced a two-stage conversion of its 80,000+ pickup points (PVZ) nationwide into mini logistics centres — a PVZ needs only one extra rack to join, and larger sites can add more racks for higher income. Stage one, from Sep 10: items unclaimed for over two weeks or from cancelled orders stay at the pickup point and are listed on Ozon's storefront for resale; once ordered, a courier collects them into Ozon's logistics system for delivery to the buyer's city. At this stage sellers cannot withdraw goods from the PVZ — they can only sell them through. Stage two, from October: sellers can bring goods to a PVZ for storage and sale themselves, or drop them at the nearest PVZ for Ozon to redistribute; withdrawal becomes available before the end of October. Ozon says it will ship from the nearest PVZ first, average delivery times will not change, and existing daily routes between most PVZ mean no significant extra cost. PVZ owners are expected to earn around RUB 15,000/month for order handling and storage, paid directly by sellers rather than by Ozon. Kommersant notes the project is directly linked to the recent drone attacks on Ozon warehouses.

Elena Dybova, vice-president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TPP), told RBC Radio that the biggest pain point for affected sellers is staff pay and layoffs: legally dismissing workers requires three months' severance that businesses cannot pay after losing stock, and the government 'did not fully work through' personal income tax (NDFL) relief — sellers who lost 50–60%+ of their goods cannot even pay wages. She urged reviving the pandemic-era scheme with the state covering at least minimum labour pay for those who lost over 50% of turnover. The second gap is the lack of a transparent mechanism for marketplaces to share damage data with partners; she called the current mechanism 'a time bomb', since sellers will contest the figures while the tax service — not a party to the process — will have to untangle it painfully, so the formula must be revised. Third, there is no way to settle with suppliers, and the issue is not even on the agenda. Fourth, a special repayment procedure is needed for seller loans taken for equipment and materials. She dismissed some marketplace measures (e.g. the 'Sales simulator') as box-ticking for the government, noting storage discounts are useless to a seller who has lost half their stock.

RBC interviewed three dietary supplement (BAD) manufacturers and Alexander Zhestkov, head of the Russian BAD Producers' Union: some companies lost goods worth RUB 50–100m in the attacks on Wildberries and Ozon warehouses. Maria Rusinova, CEO of Farmoushen Trade (brand 'Doktor More'), put her loss at roughly RUB 100m — about 100,000 packs, or ~10% of the company's annual marketplace turnover — adding the figure keeps rising as losses are recounted and more affected warehouses are confirmed. She said WB lost stock equal to about three months of sales and 'the situation is now repeating at Ozon'; no compensation has been received from either platform. Elena Filippova, CEO of Dietell, estimated her loss at RUB 18.5m (9.5% of annual sales) and said the business survives on funds from other companies in its holding; she called WB's support ineffective — millions in losses yielded only RUB 30,000 in promotional points, and those points can cover just 50% of ad spend. The hardest-hit sub-categories were vitamin D, omega-3, magnesium and collagen. Zhestkov said current platform support falls far short and the union is negotiating with Wildberries and Ozon on additional measures.

VTB first deputy chairman Dmitry Pyanov said the recent drone strikes on Wildberries and Ozon logistics infrastructure are 'undoubtedly a negative event' for both companies, but the effects are short-term: even under a stress scenario the borrowers merely move from 'first-class' to 'normal' category, without critical credit-quality risk. He outlined three levels of impact: first-order — loss of significant warehouse capacity requiring reinvestment, pressuring free cash flow; second-order — destruction of both the platforms' own goods and sellers' goods; third — the need to restructure infrastructure, hitting EBITDA margin. He expects 'some decline in metrics in 2027', but not a multiple increase in debt. He named three recovery sources: sustained consumer demand, the approved government tax measures, and normalising price competition (i.e. fewer platform discounts to end consumers). He also said seller loan-restructuring applications at VTB total hundreds of millions of roubles — immaterial to the bank's balance sheet — and that the marketplaces themselves have not applied for restructuring. The CBR has allowed banks to restructure loans to both platforms and sellers as forced, without extra provisioning. Citing CBR data, RBC notes the five largest Russian big techs (including the major marketplaces) held RUB 4.6tn in assets at the start of 2026 with total debt of RUB 2tn, up 53% year on year.

Data Insight analyst Sergey Semko said on RBC Radio that Wildberries' goods losses from the warehouse strikes range from RUB 517bn to 580bn, while Ozon's goods losses are estimated at over RUB 100bn. The range is wide and the methodology was not disclosed, so it should be read as an order-of-magnitude indicator rather than a basis for claims or insurance filings. For context, RBC cites CBR data: the five largest Russian big techs held RUB 4.6tn in combined assets at the start of 2026, with total debt of RUB 2tn. RBC also recaps that the support package proposed by the Finance Ministry on Aug 24 and approved by the government on Aug 27 targets legal entities and sole proprietors whose losses exceed 5% of annual income: a 12-month deferral on VAT, profit tax, the simplified and AUSN regimes, insurance contributions and advance payments for dues falling between August 2026 and July 2027, followed by equal instalments over the next year; the RWB group itself gets similar instalment terms with payments shifted to July 28, 2027; a moratorium on tax audits runs until year-end, and statutory deadlines for debt-collection notices are extended by six months.

The Central Bank of Russia's official rates set on Aug 28, 2026 and effective Aug 29 are: USD 1 = RUB 85.6007, EUR 1 = RUB 99.6820, CNY 1 = RUB 12.7335. Versus the previous effective day (Aug 28: USD 85.9541, EUR 100.2998, CNY 12.7691), the rouble firmed slightly against all three: the dollar down RUB 0.3534 (−0.41%), the euro down RUB 0.6178 (−0.62%), the yuan down RUB 0.0356 (−0.28%). For Chinese sellers procuring in yuan and collecting revenue in roubles, a marginally weaker yuan slightly improves the conversion of rouble revenue, but at roughly 0.3% the move does not warrant repricing; the rouble remains in the weak corridor seen since late August.