Russia E-commerce Intelligence

Data provided to Kommersant by Kokoc Group show that drone attacks on Wildberries logistics facilities in July–August 2026 affected 14 regions accounting for 68% of turnover in the studied categories; Wildberries' share in those categories fell from 53% in June to 51.3% in July. What this means for Chinese sellers: warehouse strikes have shifted from isolated incidents to a regional fulfilment risk — before peak season, split stock across warehouses in different federal districts rather than concentrating it in one hub, and build longer delivery buffers for southern and border regions.

Ozon told Kommersant that over 80% of its turnover has come from regions in recent years and about 85% of active customers now live outside the capital region; in H1 2026 one in three orders went to towns and villages under 50,000 people, where it has twice as many customers as in Moscow, and four in ten Ozon pickup points are now in such small settlements. Wildberries says the Moscow region's share has fallen to just under one fifth of its Russian turnover (28% in 2022); Yandex Market says it is systematically expanding in the regions. What this means for Chinese sellers: assortments and price points need rebuilding around regional purchasing power — cheap, practical goods turn over better in small towns, while delivery times and return costs from remote settlements must be priced in.

Only 60,000 sq m of light-industrial warehouse space was commissioned in Moscow and the Moscow region in H1 2026, down 72% YoY, while supply of such space rose 27% and deal volume fell 25%. Ricci's analytics and research director Olesya Dzyuba attributes this to delayed project deliveries plus persistently expensive debt financing, which hits the SMEs that are the main tenants. What this means for Chinese sellers: those setting up FBS or self-fulfilment around Moscow will find fewer new small-format warehouses and less room to negotiate rent, but existing supply is growing — it makes more sense to take up current space than to wait for new deliveries.

On the morning of 6 September, falling drone debris damaged a train locomotive in Chertkovsky district, Rostov region; governor Yuri Slyusar reported seven passenger trains delayed by roughly three hours, with service restored by 11:37. Air defences downed 30 drones over the region that day, and four people were injured in Rostov-on-Don. What this means for Chinese sellers: Rostov-on-Don is southern Russia's key overland freight hub and drones have repeatedly hit rail and warehouse assets — before peak season, shipments to the south and the North Caucasus should be scheduled with half a day to a day of slack and a fallback routing.

Stanislav Bogdanov, head of the omnichannel retail association AKORT, said the share of Russian-grown fruit and vegetables in major chains keeps rising, with domestic produce dominating shelves in the August–early September peak; he credits agro-aggregators and farm contracts that pool small farmers' volumes and pre-fund harvests. X5 opened a berry collection site in Chuvashia and Magnit built its own fruit and vegetable warehouse in Tambov region. What this means for Chinese sellers: import substitution in fresh produce is advancing, so cross-border sellers should avoid head-on competition with seasonal Russian produce and pivot to processed foods, dry goods, gardening and home categories.

Kommersant reports that many Russian banks now run zero-commission acquiring promotions for businesses: VTB's campaign ended 31 August and Sberbank launched its first on 1 September (targeting micro and small businesses, sole traders and self-employed), after earlier campaigns by Rosselkhozbank and Sovcombank. VTB says such offers and seasonal fee waivers saved clients over 500 million rubles last year, with SME acquiring turnover up 56% YoY in H1 2026; Sovcombank says the campaign brought 53% of new clients and 74% stayed after it ended; RSKB reports 90% retention. What this means for Chinese sellers: with a Russian legal entity and your own online store you can lock in near-zero acquiring fees for a period; when selling on Ozon/WB/Yandex Market the platform pays acquiring, so the impact on pure marketplace sellers is limited.

Kokoc Group's calculations for Kommersant show that between June 2025 and July 2026 the share of Moscow and the Moscow region in online sales of clothing, electronics, footwear, appliances and home goods fell from 26.1% to 23.4%, with Ozon and Wildberries' combined turnover in those categories across Russia at about 5.4 trillion rubles. AKIT president Artyom Sokolov estimates Moscow accounted for 15.4% of Russian e-commerce in H1 2026 and the Moscow region 7.4%, with total internet trade at 7.2 trillion rubles. What this means for Chinese sellers: the capital agglomeration is near saturation but still growing in absolute terms, while the incremental growth is in the regions — shift in-platform ad budgets and stock allocation toward the regions instead of piling into Moscow.

MTS AdTech data show that in January–May 2026 Ozon's average monthly unique website users grew just 3% YoY and Wildberries' 1%, versus 6% for both a year earlier. Alexey Moskalenko of the e-trade association estimates 85–90% of Russia's economically active population already use the largest marketplaces. Market participants believe user numbers are close to their ceiling and that attacks on logistics infrastructure may also slow regional growth. What this means for Chinese sellers: the era of riding organic platform traffic growth is over — market share now has to be won with advertising, differentiated assortments and repeat-purchase operations, while the return on simply adding SKUs will keep declining.