Russian E-Commerce Prices Surge After Wildberries Strikes

Prices for goods on major Russian e-commerce platforms have increased by 10% to 30% in recent days following a concerted campaign of Ukrainian drone strikes against logistics infrastructure, The Moscow Times reported. Sellers and buyers on Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, noted that the cost of items in their digital shopping carts surged by up to 35% over the past week.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. According to sellers, the base prices of the goods have not been altered. Instead, the price hikes are the result of Wildberries abruptly canceling platform-funded promotional discounts. “WB [Wildberries] has simply canceled almost all promotions it was running at its own expense. This is generally understandable – it is struggling to restore logistics and has to compensate for the losses from burned warehouses,” said one major seller operating across multiple Russian platforms. The logistical disruptions have also affected shipping, with delivery times increasing from an average of two to four days to up to ten days. The price increases have extended to Ozon, Wildberries’ primary competitor, despite its logistics network remaining largely undamaged by the recent strikes. Ozon has reportedly mirrored Wildberries’ strategy by reducing platform-funded discounts. As a result, some sellers face commission rates exceeding 60% on certain categories, such as clothing and footwear, leading to a sharp drop in overall sales across both platforms. Other Topics of Interest Ukrainian Woman Assaulted in Polish City of Gdynia A 40-year-old Ukrainian woman was hospitalized after an unidentified man struck her twice on the head with a wooden cane in the Polish city of Gdynia on July 30. Extensive warehouse damage The economic disruptions follow a two-week period of intensive strikes on Wildberries’ supply chain infrastructure. Ukrainian forces have damaged or destroyed logistics facilities totaling approximately 1 million square meters (247 acres) – representing roughly 38% of the company’s major warehouse capacity. Over the past two weeks, at least 18 strikes have targeted Wildberries facilities. Ten of the company’s 26 largest warehouses have sustained damage, including a 250,000-square-meter facility in Elektrostal (Moscow region) and a 106,000-square-meter site in Shushary (St. Petersburg), both of which were completely destroyed by fire. Other affected facilities include major hubs in the Voronezh, Tambov, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Penza, Udmurtia, Leningrad, and Volgograd regions. Almost two thirds (64%) of Wildberries’ large warehouses located west of the Ural Mountains have been targeted, with 44% successfully hit, indicating that nearly all of the company’s primary logistics centers remain within range of Ukrainian strikes. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.