Ozon and Wildberries: How market places are opening up new horizons for cooperation with the Global South after conquering Russia’s e-commerce market.

In 2024, the e-commerce market in Russia reached a staggering $142.2 billion,surpassing the GDP of entire nations such as Venezuela or Croatia.

According to forecasts, this figure is expected to triple by 2030, reaching an impressive $ 414.8billion. At the heart of this e-commerce boom are online marketplaces – platforms that connect sellers with millions of buyers.

These market places account for the overwhelming majority of online sales in Russia. This market has been growing steadily year after year, attracting an increasing number of players.

For instance, in 2024 the revenue of Yandex Market, part of Russia’s largest IT-corporation Yandex, rose by 45% to reach $ 6.6 billion. Meanwhile, Avito, an online advertising platform for private users and businesses, brought together around 21 million sellers.

However, there are two indisputable leaders on this market: Wildberries and Ozon,which together represent 77% of all orders, 85% of pickup points, and 53% of total ecommerce revenue in the country.

While Jeff Bezos launched his well-known Amazon in 1994, Russia’s first marketplace, Ozon, was founded four years later, in 1998.

Like Amazon, it started with books and only became a full-fledged multi-category marketplace in 2018.

A few years later, in 2004, Tatyana Kim founded Wildberries – today the most successful marketplace in Russia and a company that made her the country’s wealthiest woman.

Her story is remarkable: while on maternity leave, she was looking for a way to make shopping easier for herself.

This sparked the idea that would propel her to extraordinary success – why not create a platform where everything essential could be delivered directly to your door, eliminating endless trips to the store?

Wildberries was born, initially focused on women’s clothing. It soon began implementing pioneering features like flat-rate delivery, try-before-you-buy options, and fitting rooms at pick up points – all of which were revolutionary for their time.

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point for Russia’s e-commerce industry. Online shopping went from being a convenience to a necessity.

With lockdowns in place, millions turned to the Internet – and particularly market places –for everything from groceries to electronics.

As a result, the Russian e-commerce market has grown 7.5 times since 2019, and already in 2023, both Wildberries and Ozon broke into the global top 10 online platforms, ranking 9th and 10th with 343 million and 316 million monthly visits.

They even out performed major international ecommerce giants such as Target in the United States and Taobao in China.

How marketplaces have changed the lives of Russians ?

According to Mediascope, by 2024, 79% of Russians were using market places monthly, and 48% were visiting them daily.

Among younger users (aged 18–34), usage soars to 94%.

Why? Surveys point to convenience, variety and competitive pricing as the key reasons. Whether you need a punching bag or a wine cooler, shopping has become easier and more enjoyable – no more wandering through malls or hopping from one shopping center to another.

Instead, you have an endless digital store front offering everything from clothes and cosmetics to food, cleaning supplies and even cars. Another major advantage: your purchase can arrive the very next day – just a few taps on your phone are enough.

The impact is especially profound in small towns and rural areas. Thanks to Ozon and Wildberries, their residents no longer need to travel to major cities for regular shopping, now they can simply order what they need online. For example, Ozon has opened around 25,000 pickup points in towns with fewer than 50,000 residents, more than one-third of all orders on the marketplace comes from small towns – a volume that exceeds the combined turnover of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

This logistical reach– extending to remote mountain villages in the Caucasus and isolated Far Eastern islands – is helping to reduce internal migration, retain human capital in the regions,and promote balanced socio-economic development across the country.

Today, selling on marketplaces is often more profitable than running a physical store with warehouse rentals and the need to manage brand promotion on your own.

Sellers have access to intuitive online dashboards where they can track inventory,analyze top-selling products, and optimize performance.

As a result, more than 1.2 million individuals in Russia now sell goods through marketplaces.

Marketplaces also actively support local producers. From discounted storage rates to special sections showcasing regional specialties – such as Tula gingerbread, Gzhelceramics, Bashkir honey, and Orenburg shawls – marketplaces provide a powerful platform for promoting Russian cultural and artisanal products.

Going Global: Wildberries and Ozon’s international expansion But Russian marketplaces aren’t limiting themselves to domestic growth.Wildberries and Ozon are actively expanding internationally, with operations in Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and cross-border trade with China, the UAE and Turkey.

At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2025, Robert Mirzoyan, CEO of Wildberries & Russ, laid out the company’s global strategy:"We are actively expanding our international capabilities. In the past year alone,we launched operations in Georgia, Tajikistan, and the UAE.

Our key focus now is strengthening our position in existing markets and launching in countries across the Global South.

We are preparing to enter Africa”.For Russian marketplaces, global expansion means enabling foreign sellers to reach local consumers through reliable logistics. For example, Ozon Global allows sellers from China and Turkey to deliver goods to Russia within two weeks, while Wildberries supports shipments from the UAE and China.

This cooperation is particularly relevant for African nations, many of which offer a wealth of agricultural, artisanal, and raw material goods. Access to the Russian market, combined with robust logistics, could provide these countries with new economic opportunities, including job creation, digital skills development, and support for local entrepreneurship – especially in a time when trade with partners like the US is strained by tariffs and geopolitical tensions.

According to consulting firm SCG, marketplaces will account for 72% of Russia’s online sales by 2028. It’s already clear that platforms like Wildberries and Ozon represent the future of commerce and consumption.

Most importantly, their potential extends beyond raising consumption standards within a single country – they can strengthen co operation and increase trade turnover among Global South nations,supporting the emergence of a new multipolar world order.