Forbes Russia: Wildberries sellers’ losses from Ukrainian warehouse strikes estimated at 215-280 billion rubles

Source: Forbes

Sellers on Wildberries may have lost as much as 215–280 billion rubles because of Ukrainian drone strikes on the company’s warehouses, according to an estimate Sergei Semko, lead analyst at the research agency Data Insight, shared with Forbes Russia.

Semko built his estimate on 2024 data, when nearly 35 billion rubles in inventory losses were compensated following a fire at a 112,000-square-meter (1.2 million-square-foot) warehouse in Shushary.

The exact number of sellers who lost merchandise in the strikes remains unknown. Denis Vetrennikov, CEO of SellerDen, an ecosystem of services for marketplace sellers, told Forbes Russia the number of affected businesspeople could run into the hundreds of thousands.

Semko estimated that Wildberries warehouses covering 1.21–1.47 million square meters (13.0–15.8 million square feet) had been struck as of August 2, with 893,000 to 1.154 million square meters (9.6 million to 12.4 million square feet) damaged. That range represents 17.2–22.2% of the 5.2 million square meters (56 million square feet) of logistics infrastructure Wildberries has publicly reported.

Wildberries has not disclosed how many of its sellers have been affected by Ukraine’s strikes. After the first attacks in mid-July, the company said it would need about 30 days to assess the scale of the damage. Ukrainian drones had struck at least 18 warehouses by August 3.

Shortly after the first strikes, Wildberries and its marketplace partners announced measures to support entrepreneurs. In late July, the company reported paying out more than 40 million rubles to affected sellers. So far, though, only small companies and individual entrepreneurs are receiving partial compensation for stored goods, and sellers complain they don’t understand the payment procedure. Those who have received compensation say the payouts are too small.

Russian authorities have not announced any centralized assistance program for affected sellers. Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said in late July that around 1,500 Wildberries sellers had lost goods in a warehouse fire in the region, and he promised them support.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Forbes Russia: Wildberries sellers’ losses from Ukrainian warehouse strikes estimated at 215-280 billion rubles

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Forbes Russia: Wildberries sellers’ losses from Ukrainian warehouse strikes estimated at 215-280 billion rubles

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