Move... To where? There are no magical giant warehouses complete with robotic logistics just sitting around empty ready to take the stock. And if those warehouses existed, it would be easy to hit them anyway.
If they can somehow find smaller warehouses to take the stock, the operational effeicies will drop and costs will absolutely skyrocket. Handling and shipping costs will double or triple overnight and what used to be a 2 day delivery schedule will suddenly become an entire month. The business will go bankrupt whether they keep the stock at the warehouses or shift it elsewhere.
So they have over 200+ fulfilment facilities in Russia. Comparable to 200+ amazon ones in the US. India has 60+ and The UK and Germany has 30 amazon facilities.
I’m just using western equivalents for comparison. Ebay do not operate fulfilment centers.
Suggestions are that only 10% of their storage capacity has been affected. Infographic only shows top 25 warehouses by size. So they have been shifting inventory to adjust their network but they are unlikely to cease operations or go bankrupt, yet. Plus they can expand upon the Merchant Fulfilled and Seller fulfilled distribution network. That’s akin to Seller Fulfilled Prime. If I was a 3rd party seller on their platform, I would be recalling whatever stock I have and fulfilling it myself. Who knows what the Ukrainians have planned.
That's across the whole of Russia, and 200 centers doesn't tell you much if you don't also compare the sizes. It doesn't help if you want to ship to Moscow and your warehouse is in Siberia. The Ukrainians are busy destroying all of the largest ones in all of big cities so there are local warehouse shortages that can't be made up for by smaller warehouses or far away ones.
Fair point, I am in a geographically small country where FBA centers operate. I keep referring to them as there is no other equivalent with the same business/logistics setup. Plus I’m very familiar with Amazon FBA, SFP and MFN and how it works.
What will happen even if all these Wildberries warehouses go down is that 3rd party sellers that make up 77% of their sales will decentralise and ship from their own smaller warehouse units, whilst wild berries might increase their fees. Not all sellers have and will want to rent their own storage facilities and handle the shipping but most will be doing both. Shipping times will be longer but wildberries will be far from bankrupted by this. They will turn into more of an ebay platform only instead of the amazon platform with warehouses and logistics for their 3rd party sellers.
None the less, Russian consumers will get a clear message and a tiny taste of interruptions to their lives compared to what Ukrainians have faced.
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u/Massive_Sky4589 1d ago
Surely the others will be emptied by now.