Losses in the billions: Wildberries moves warehouses abroad after Ukraine destroys more than 20% of logistics capacity

Why Wildberries is changing the logistics model

According to the data The Moscow Times, long-term storage warehouses provide 70–80% of the turnover of large sellers on the platform. Due to regular attacks on the logistics infrastructure, the company decided to move part of the stocks outside of Russia in order to protect the goods from new attacks.

What implications will this have for sellers?

The new scheme of work creates additional difficulties for business. For the transportation of goods across the border, customs clearance is required, which many sellers do not have, because a large part of the products used to be imported under simplified or unofficial schemes.

In addition, delivery times and logistics costs will increase, which may weaken the competitive position of Wildberries in the Russian market.

Where the company is expanding its warehouse network

Wildberries is already actively investing in new logistics centers outside of Russia:

• - Kazakhstan — rented 46 thousand square meters m warehouses and is still being built 260 thousand sq. m. m with launch in the first quarter of 2027.

• - Belarus — the construction of a complex with an area of 140 thousand sq. m. m, and another large logistics center is also planned.

• - Uzbekistan — the Central Asian logistics hub is being created with a complex close to 170 thousand square meters m.

Scale of losses

As of the beginning of August as a result of Ukrainian drone attacks the total area of ​​Wildberries warehouse facilities that were hit reached 1.5 million square meters m. Some of them are damaged 0.9–1.15 million square meters. m, and later two more large warehouses were completely or partially destroyed.

According to experts, restoration of logistics infrastructure will cost 62.5–80.8 billion rubles, whereas losses of sellers can reach 280 billion rubles.

What this means for the market

The transfer of warehouse capacities abroad shows that even the largest Russian companies are forced to adapt their logistics due to infrastructure losses. The new work model will partially reduce risks, but it will make delivery more expensive and slower, as well as create additional barriers for sellers and increase competition in the market.