Wildberries has lost more than 9% of its logistics capacity due to drone attacks
Ukrainian attack drones have begun systematically striking major logistics centers belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest marketplace. Over the past two weeks, at least 10 of the company’s warehouses have come under attack, resulting in significant losses for both the platform itself and Russian businesses.
According to the publication, the RWB (Wildberries) group generated approximately $73 billion in gross merchandise sales last year.
However, as a result of the July attacks by Ukrainian drones alone, the company lost more than 9% of its warehouse capacity.
Wildberries operates on a model similar to Amazon’s: the marketplace provides sellers with a platform to sell goods and uses its own warehouses to store them and subsequently deliver them to customers.
The publication notes that the goods destroyed during the attacks mostly belong to independent sellers who use Wildberries’ logistics infrastructure.
At the same time, the products sold through the marketplace include tactical equipment, dual-use goods, and drone components, which, according to Ukraine, was one of the reasons for the strikes on these facilities.
Following the attacks, the state-owned Sberbank reported that approximately 300 companies with loans had requested payment deferrals or changes to their loan terms.
The bank does not rule out that, due to the increase in the number of non-performing loans, it will have to build up reserves to cover potential losses.
Following the series of attacks, on July 7, Wildberries amended its compensation policy.
From now on, drone and missile strikes are officially recognized as force majeure events, which exempts the company from liability for the loss of sellers’ goods.
At the same time, the company stated that it will still compensate some merchants for their losses, though it did not disclose specific amounts or the scope of the compensation.
According to expert estimates, just two Ukrainian attacks on July 21 caused sellers at least $1.87 billion in losses. Following that, Ukrainian drones attacked eight more Wildberries warehouse complexes.
It is currently unclear exactly which drones were used in all of the strikes. At the same time, Fire Point, the manufacturer of one of the most widely used Ukrainian long-range strike UAVs, the FP-1, confirmed that this particular drone was used in at least one attack on a warehouse in Ryazan.
This was reported by Business Insider.
About 1,500 sellers on the Russian marketplace Wildberries lost their goods as a result of a fire at a warehouse in the Leningrad Region following an attack by Ukrainian drones. This was stated by the region’s governor, Alexander Drozdenco.
For the first time in the past five years, the number of entrepreneurs working in the e-commerce sector in Russia has begun to decline. According to analysts, in the first half of the year, the number of companies engaged in online commerce decreased by 23,500—to 456,700.
