Several Wildberries sellers say they have not received payouts for goods already sold, with some still waiting for money they requested to withdraw on August 17, according to Frank Media. Under the marketplace's offer agreement, funds should arrive within seven working days, meaning the payment should have landed by August 26.
The company's press service confirmed the delays, saying that the systems of its 'Seller Balance' service had been subjected to DDoS attacks, which could have caused protective mechanisms to temporarily suspend individual money-transfer operations. Wildberries insists that sellers' funds are safe but does not specify when payouts will resume.
Sellers are skeptical of the technical explanation. The Moscow Times quotes one seller who quipped: 'This is when too many requests hit the server and it cannot withstand such a load. So, apparently, that's what happens — many sellers are asking for their money, but Wildberries doesn't have that much.'
Data from the service Uniseller shows that the average time for withdrawing funds from the marketplace has been increasing all year: by August, most sellers were receiving money not after five days as a year earlier, but 14 days after the request. Now entrepreneurs say even that deadline is being missed. 'A difference of a week to a week and a half is critical for small businesses — it's a cash gap that there's nothing to cover,' Uniseller experts note.
Two major Wildberries contractors told The Moscow Times that the company is looking for ways to close its cash gap, including by using sellers' funds. According to them, the reason is that Ukrainian drones destroyed the marketplace's warehouses, damaging its financial model, which relies on constantly growing turnover. Sergei Semko, lead analyst at Data Insight, estimated in mid-August that damage from attacks on Wildberries warehouses amounted to 600–800 billion rubles.
Authorities have said they are ready to support the company. Vladimir Putin ordered a program to restore its warehouses. The government approved support measures for the RVB group, including a one-year tax deferral and a moratorium on tax inspections; part of the resolution is restricted in distribution. VTB Bank is also set to become a shareholder in RWB, with the deal postponed to September. According to contractors, in the closed part of the resolution, Wildberries may be allocated funds to pay off debts to sellers.