On August 4, Kazakhstani Minister for Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliyev announced that the Russian e-commerce platform Wildberries would expand its warehouse capacity in the country. According to the minister, Wildberries plans to build 260,000 square meters of storage, split between Astana and Almaty, expanding its capacity more than eightfold from its current 46,000 square meters of leased warehouse space.
The announcement comes following a July marked by more than 20 attacks on Wildberries’ logistical hubs across Russia, also affecting Kazakh sellers on the platform who have lost an estimated $3.2 million worth of goods.
Despite media reports framing the expansion as a relocation of the e-commerce platform, the planned warehouses in Kazakhstan would not be able to cover the more than 1 million square meters lost over the last month. On top of this, Wildberries’ new warehouses planned in Kazakhstan are, at the time of writing, only set to be completed in 2027, thereby not solving the current problems facing the company. This news, however, came just days after the Russian newspaper cited multiple sources saying the company was looking for 100,000 square meters of extra storage.
