Wildberries ripe for further expansion as Russian e-commerce giant launches sales in Germany
Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, has started sales in Germany. The company announced plans for entering other markets of the European Union in the near future.
“We are pleased to announce our entry into one of the largest e-commerce markets in Europe. Germany has become the 10th country for Wildberries. In the near future, Wildberries is also planning to enter the markets of France, Italy and Spain. Our new customers will have access to a wide range of goods both at affordable prices and in the premium segment,” the company’s director of development, Vyacheslav Ivashchenko, said.
German online shoppers may order goods via the separate website de.wildberries.eu, as well as by the mobile application. The German branch of Wildberries sells around four million items provided by nearly 40 thousand brands. Delivery is carried out through its 40 million partners’ pick-up points or by courier services.
In 2019, the retailer launched sales in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Israel. Moreover, Wildberries operates in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia.
The firm, founded in 2004 by Tatyana Bakalchuk while on maternity leave from teaching, managed to significantly expand after the financial crisis as foreign companies sought to offload their excess inventory at a steep discount.
Wildberries became Russia’s number one online retailer in 2017, and attracted over two million daily visitors the following year. The company’s trade volume surged 87 percent from January through September 2019 against the same period in the previous year, and totaled $4 billion.
Forbes Magazine included the founder of the company in the list of the 10 most notable new billionaires in 2019, estimating Bakalchuk’s fortune at around $1 billion.
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