Wildberries is interested in expanding its representation in Kazakhstan
On December 13, 2022, Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of trade and integration Serik Zhumangarin held a meeting with Tatyana Bakalchuk, general director of Wildberry LLC, as part of a working visit to Moscow.
The participants discussed opportunities for cooperation and business expansion of the largest Russian marketplaces in Kazakhstan. Deputy prime minister spoke about the existing and promising projects for the creation of cross-border hubs in the country, which may be of interest to the development of e-commerce. The existing International Center for cross-border cooperation" Khorgos", on the territory of which, in addition to the bond warehouse, there are free sites with the necessary infrastructure for the construction of other warehouse premises. From the perspective-the creation of a cross – border shopping center "Eurasia" in the West Kazakhstan region, through which two main corridors "One Belt-One Road" and "North-South"will pass.
"This center will become an industrial zone, attractive and profitable in terms of logistics and preferences. Plus – geographical proximity to Russia and access to the EAEU markets. It presents great opportunities to increase the capacity of the terminal and warehouse infrastructure, increase the transit flow of goods through the region," Serik Zhumangarin stressed.
Currently, two warehouses and one plot of land in Astana and Almaty have been proposed for consideration by Wildberries.
As Tatiana Bakalchuk said at the meeting, for the construction of an omnichannel trade support center, the company is also interested in finding infrastructure in the Almaty region. The CEO of Wildberries appealed to the Kazakh side with a request for assistance in making certain decisions on choosing a place for infrastructure development in Kazakhstan.
During the meeting, the Chairman of the Board of JSC "Kazpost" Assel Zhanasova and Tatiana Bakalchuk signed a memorandum of intent between the companies, thereby expressing their willingness to cooperate in terms of trunk cargo transportation from the Russian Federation to Kazakhstan and across the country, the provision of storage facilities for rent for Wildberries.
Following the negotiations, the parties agreed on the arrival of the Wildberries management in Kazakhstan in January 2023 to get acquainted in detail with the potential locations of the marketplace warehouses and discuss the terms of cooperation.
For reference: According to Kazpost JSC, in 2021 the volume of the e-commerce market amounted to 1,286.8 billion tenge, which is 9.6% of the total retail trade. The volume of the B2C e–commerce market for 9 months of 2022 is 806.9 billion tenge. According to Wildberries LLC, by the end of 2021, the turnover on the Wildberries platform amounted to 60.7 billion tenge. For 9 months of 2022, 6,749 suppliers were registered, the volume of sales of goods of Kazakhstani entrepreneurs amounted to more than 46.2 billion tenge. The total volume of Wildberries in Kazakhstan is 92.4 billion tenge, which is 11.4% of the total volume of e–commerce in Kazakhstan (an increase of 52% compared to 2021).