The history of Wildberries: key stages

The history of Wildberries is often told as the story of a shop launched from home. That story can obscure the decisions in logistics, customer service and partner relationships that helped the company grow.

If you see Wildberries as “just a marketplace”, it is easy to overlook the technology behind the business. Pickup points, fitting rooms, returns, seller settlements, warehouses and the legal structure are all product decisions that affect money every day.

Below is the history of Wildberries in stages, followed by management lessons you can apply to your business.

Wildberries in brief: four stages

This short timeline does not replace the details, but it shows the logic of the company's development: first the range and service, then the pickup network, and then scaling the platform through sellers and logistics.

• 2004 — Tatyana Bakalchuk launches the Wildberries online shop.
• 2019 — according to the company's announcement (in Russian), its own pickup network exceeds 6,100 locations.
• 2020 — ecommerce grows during the pandemic (in Russian), while the pressure on logistics and customer service calls for resilient processes.
• 5 August 2024 — deliveries move to the new legal entity, RWB LLC, as part of the combination of Wildberries and Russ.

2004: how did Wildberries start, and what kept it going in its early years?

Wildberries started in 2004 as an online clothing and footwear shop. RWB's materials (in Russian) identify Tatyana Kim, formerly Bakalchuk, as the company's founder.

Buying clothing online requires clear fitting and return rules. A convenient purchase process lowers the barrier for customers. At Wildberries, that meant a straightforward journey: choose, collect, try on and decline an unsuitable item at the pickup point (in Russian).

There is a direct lesson here for small businesses. In the early stages, a repeatable transaction process with a clear range and direction helps. It can then be scaled through people, locations, warehouses and technology.

Pickup points and fitting rooms: why did the physical network accelerate growth?

When Wildberries began relying on pickup points, the model gained a strong advantage: control over the “last mile”. Customers could stop on their way home, try items on and immediately arrange a return for anything that did not fit.

Pickup points became a separate business area with their own standards. The network grew: the company first developed its own locations and then began opening partner locations. An RWB employee describes this transition (in Russian). For customers, the network makes collecting orders and returning unsuitable items easier.

The company publishes entrance design requirements for partner pickup points (in Russian). The physical pickup network becomes part of the customer experience, and its standards influence how customers perceive the service.

Becoming a platform: a new era

The next stage in the history of Wildberries was the transition from a shop with its own range to a platform where thousands of independent sellers offer goods. This model increases the catalogue and turnover, but it also adds complexity: rules, listing quality, penalties, goods acceptance, returns and disputes all need to be managed.

One of a seller's key decisions is where to store goods and who should handle delivery. In its official guide for sellers (in Russian), Wildberries describes sales models that differ in storage location and the division of delivery responsibilities. Essentially, this is a choice between speed, control and the seller's costs.

At this stage, the platform sets the rules for working together and measures performance using data. The larger the network, the more costly the gap between rules on paper and processes in warehouses and pickup points becomes: those gaps create a risk of disputes with partners.

Logistics as a product

At Wildberries, logistics is more than a back-office process. It is part of the promise to the customer: a clear delivery timeframe, the chance to try items on and simple returns. The company uses a warehouse network and different delivery models, described in its warehouse map (in Russian) and “WB Warehouse” model guide (in Russian).

Breaking this stage into management components produces a familiar picture: processing-speed KPIs, packaging quality, picking accuracy, losses and stock mix-ups, queues at pickup points and the load on support. When metrics are not linked to responsible people and money, the same problem reappears in different places.

A useful idea for project-based businesses is that logistics follows the same principles as construction, manufacturing and services. There are many contractors, handover points, payments and mutual obligations. It depends on transparent records of the facts: who did what, when, for how much, and which documents confirm it.

2024: combining with Russ and changing the legal entity

In 2024, Wildberries and outdoor advertising operator Russ announced their combination (in Russian). To the market, this looked like an attempt to create a unified advertising and retail infrastructure: demand data, advertising tools, sales and logistics.

For partners and suppliers, the legal aspect mattered more. In its seller instructions (in Russian), Wildberries specified that deliveries would move to RWB LLC from 5 August 2024. This is a case where a company's history is reflected in legal details, contracts and properly configured document workflows.

What can entrepreneurs learn from the history of Wildberries?

It is useful to read the history of Wildberries without romanticising it. It is a story about managing complexity: customer service, partner rules, quality control in logistics and a legal structure that supports growth. In project-based businesses, the same management questions arise around contractors, procurement, completion certificates, advances and deadlines.

To avoid losing money as you scale, you need a system that records facts immediately: payments, obligations, documents and reports from the people doing the work. The 101 blog has materials that help turn this logic into a manageable structure: the approach to projects in “Managing a project-based business” (in Russian) and the financial side in a guide to income and expense accounting (in Russian).

To apply these principles, see how daily project-budget control works in “How to manage a project budget in the 101 app”. It shows why keeping “everything in chats” ends in discrepancies between agreements and figures.

You can then put together a simple implementation plan. It works in construction, agencies, manufacturing and logistics — wherever money flows through the work of people and contractors. First, define projects as accounting units: each should have a clear way of measuring results and a clear boundary of responsibility.

Step 1. Define income and expense categories that match how your team makes decisions.

Step 2. Link every payment and advance to a project and category, and attach evidence: receipts, invoices and completion certificates.

Step 3. Separate the roles: who spends, who approves, who sees the reports and who accepts the final result.

Step 4. Compare planned and actual figures in one place so you can see cash shortfalls before they disrupt the schedule.

If you are choosing a tool for these tasks, the checklist in “How to choose a project management system” (in Russian) and the overview of management accounting software (in Russian) will help.

If you would like to see the system in action and find a workflow that suits your processes, join a demonstration of the 101 app. We will show the project structure, reporting and work with contractors.