Largest Russian online retailer
Wildberries (, "Vayldberriz") is the largest Russian online retailer. It was founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim.
Besides Russia, Wildberries serves: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Wildberries had more than 48,000 employees as of 2020. Until 2022, the company previously had services in France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Moldova, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, the United States, and Ukraine. Wildberries sells 37,000 brands of clothing, shoes, cosmetics, household products, children's goods, electronics, books, jewelry, food and much more. The company processes an average of 750,000 online orders per day.
History.
The company was founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim. Kim started the business at the age of 28 in her Moscow apartment while on maternity leave from teaching. She realized how difficult it was for her and other young mothers to shop for clothes for themselves with a newborn at home. Her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, an IT technician, soon joined her to help build the business.
In 2017, Wildberries became Russia's largest online retailer, surpassing Ulmart. The company, originally based in Milkovo, Moscow Oblast, relocated to Moscow in 2018.
In 2018, Wildberries pulled in $1.9 billion in sales and attracted 2 million daily visitors. Based on Forbes’ analysis, Kim is worth approximately $1 billion in 2019.
In 2019, Wildberries had revenues for $3 billion with net profit increasing from Rbs1.88bn to Rbs7bn, confirming Wildberries’ leading role in the Russia's fast-growing $30bn ecommerce market.
In January 2020, Wildberries started work in the European Union with the launch of sales in Poland. It plans to open about 100 order distribution units in Poland and has opened the first in Warsaw.
The company managed to expand in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, as foreign companies sought to offload their excess inventory at a steep discount.
Forbes Magazine included Kim to the list "The 10 Most Notable New Billionaires Of 2019".
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the company reported an increase in sales volumes almost doubled - up to $6 billion. About $305 million are accounted for overseas markets.
In February 2021, Kim bought a small Russian bank Standard Credit (official site). The bank's capital is 302 million rubles, the purchase price is unknown. In Wildberries the bank will be used for settlements with suppliers and for servicing consumer services. In August 2021, the bank was rebranded as Wildberries Bank. In January 2022, Wildberries Bank started withdrawing prepaid virtual bank's "WB-cards" with a digital wallet.
In April 2021, Wildberries launched an online store in the United States.
Since June 2021, Wildberries has started online sales by installment and on credit in Russia.
In July 2021, Ukraine imposed sanctions against Wildberries and its owner Tatyana Kim. Trade in military uniforms and anti-Ukrainian books was named as the reason. The company said it didn't have assets in Ukraine or capital, so sanctions wouldn't harm Wildberries, but only Ukrainian entrepreneurs using its platform. Wildberries said that it sold goods that other foreign players sold in Ukraine. Wildberries accused Ukraine of double standards and discrimination of business. The company's speaker Wildberries didn't expect harm to the company.
In February 2022, the company launched the program of 5 billion roubles to subsidy assistance of merchant discount rate for local sellers providing quick delivery.
In April 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kim and Wildberries were added to sanctions list for indirect support of the War; it was noted that "is the largest taxpayer in the Russian Federation".
In the summer of 2022, the company became a kit manufacturer for various Russian Premier League clubs, such as FC Spartak, PFC CSKA and FC Zenit.
In July 2023, Wildberries announced the launch of travel services on its platform. Users are offered package tours, as well as booking hotels and hostels, both in Russia and abroad. At the time of the launch of the service, the company sold only offers from travel agencies and aggregators.
On 13 January 2024 a fire broke out at the company's warehouse in the village of Shushary near St. Petersburg (coordinates: ), whose area was 70 thousand m2. Extinguishing of the fire lasted 30 hours. According to preliminary estimates, the amount of damage from the fire was approximately 11 billion rubles. The warehouse had operated without permission from the Russian State Construction Supervision Inspectorate (Gosstroynadzor) and had never been visited by the fire inspectorate.
In June 2024, Wildberries announced a merger with the outdoor advertising firm Russ Group to build a digital market and a payments platform. The merger was completed by October.
Her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk (the couple is in the process of getting divorced), calls the deal a hostile takeover and claims that Tatyana is being manipulated. Vladislav was unexpectedly supported by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. He also called the deal a hostile takeover and the owners of Russ Group swindlers. He accused the head of Russ Group, Robert Mirzoyan, and his brother Levan of not allowing Tatyana Kim to communicate with her family and promised "not to stand aside."
In August 2024 as a result of the merger, RVB LLC was created. The head of the new company was Russ Group CEO Robert Mirzoyan.
On 18 September 2024, a group of armed men led by Vladislav Bakalchuk tried to enter the company's headquarters in Moscow, leading to a shootout that left two people dead. Vladislav was subsequently arrested on a murder charge.
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