Wildberries Offers Belarusian Sellers Warehouse Loss Compensation

Wildberries offered Belarusian sellers compensation for goods destroyed in attacks on its warehouses in Russia, with payouts due by December 1 if sellers accept an agreement requiring them to waive further claims.

The Union of Marketplace Sellers’ Telegram channel reported the offer on November 5. It said: “The compensation amount is set by the marketplace.” Wildberries would compensate the loss through a single payment, while the agreement would release the platform from further claims over the same goods.

Wildberries has not published official calculation criteria for the compensation. The marketplace, rather than the seller, determines each amount, and seller reports indicate substantial variation.

What changes for sellers if they accept the offer?

Acceptance brings a defined payment before December 1 and ends the seller’s ability to pursue further compensation from Wildberries over that loss. Refusal leaves the seller free to seek recovery through the courts.

Sellers have two routes:

• Accept the marketplace-set amount and sign the additional agreement, relinquishing further claims over the destroyed goods.
• Reject the proposal and pursue compensation for the damage through legal proceedings.

Reported payout levels vary sharply. In local seller chats, some sellers cited offers close to the cost of the lost goods; others cited around half that amount or less.

The channel described those differences as very large. It did not disclose a common rate or a method for comparing offers between sellers, and the reports cannot establish how many sellers fall into each payment band.

Those messages do not form a statistically meaningful sample. The reports came from individual sellers, including some who are not large operators, so they cannot establish the average compensation rate across all affected Belarusian sellers.

Wildberries has not extended the same proposal to many Russian sellers whose inventory also suffered in warehouse attacks. A significant share still lack damage assessment acts (documents recording the loss). They also have no certainty about compensation payments or an official government position on support for the losses.

The proposal gives Belarusian sellers a stated payment date. Russian sellers whose goods suffered comparable losses have neither a matching offer nor a confirmed timetable, leaving the two groups with different information about compensation.

Other seller-facing developments cited alongside the offer

The coverage also listed changes affecting sellers and product listings:

• Sellers can send buyers paid reminders requesting product reviews.
• Wildberries plans to warn users about false photographs in reviews but will not remove them.
• Wildberries launched an exchange for selling product cards that include reviews and ratings. Ozon already operates a similar service.
• Sellers must provide a photograph of every product on a plain white background without infographics; the requirement began in Georgia.

Related commission dispute

A seller who did not receive a commission after achieving target turnover under an expanded cooperation program sued Wildberries. Marketplace representatives said: “The agreement was not properly signed by both sides.” The court ruled for Wildberries. An accompanying assessment said the ruling could become the platform’s standard defense in similar cases.

The commission case did not concern compensation for destroyed inventory, and the report did not link the ruling to the warehouse attacks.

The immediate choice for affected Belarusian sellers is a fixed payment before December 1 in exchange for ending claims, or a court claim for damages they believe exceed the offered amount.