Business Environment: RWB’s New Ecosystem
At the Eastern Economic Forum, the combined Wildberries & Russ (RWB) company unveiled RWB Sreda (RWB Business Environment), a digital platform that brings together analytics, training, government support programs and business acceleration programs in a single interface for entrepreneurs.
The platform is designed for sellers, pickup-point owners, WB Travel partners and their employees. Alongside livestreams and online workshops, whose September schedules have already been published, RWB Sreda also plans to host offline events.
Growth Platform
RWB Sreda is a single gateway to the ecosystem, bringing together tools for operating on Wildberries, business support programs, educational materials, articles, videos and guides. The platform also integrates PRO WB resources and Platforma rosta (Growth Platform), an acceleration program that RWB runs jointly with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI).
More than 1 million sellers currently operate on Wildberries, while Growth Platform includes more than 2,000 brands from 58 Russian regions, as well as entrepreneurs from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. RWB Sreda already gives them tools for analyzing market niches and sales, promoting products, managing customer loyalty and accessing advanced analytics. For entrepreneurs, particularly newcomers and regional businesses, this can make it easier to enter e-commerce, understand sales performance more precisely and use digital tools to grow.
The Russian government explicitly views platforms like these as infrastructure that can reduce entrepreneurs’ costs and further accelerate the digitalization of small and midsize businesses.
AI Assistant
With the launch of an AI assistant for business diagnostics and the addition of financial services, RWB Sreda is set to evolve into a personalized digital business management system. The AI assistant will be able to analyze a store’s performance, spot problem areas and recommend changes to product selection, advertising, pricing and logistics based on the seller’s actual performance data.
Russian e-commerce companies are rapidly bringing AI into their business processes. According to a study by Yandex and consulting firm Yakov and Partners, 67% of surveyed companies were using generative AI in 2023.
RWB is moving in the same direction as other major commerce platforms. Yandex Market, for example, launched Market AI for sellers in 2025, enabling them to analyze sales and generate forecasts.
As RWB operates not only in Russia but also in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ethiopia, and works with suppliers in China and the United Arab Emirates, the platform model with digital assistants for entrepreneurs could also be replicated in those markets.
Supporting Entrepreneurs
Russia’s main business-support platform today is MSP.RF (SME.RF). The SME Corporation and the Ministry of Economic Development created it in 2022 as a one-stop shop. It brings together more than 800 federal and regional government support programs, along with numerous online business services and training programs. As of early 2026, its services had been used more than 12 million times.
RWB and ASI launched Growth Platform in 2024 to stimulate entrepreneurial activity in the regions. “Now any entrepreneur, from any corner of the country, can use e-commerce technologies to reach the national market and cut logistics and advertising costs. In other words, they can enter the major leagues right away,” Mikhail Khomich, deputy director of ASI’s New Business division, said at the time. The program is now part of RWB Sreda.
E-commerce is becoming an increasingly important part of the Russian economy. In the first half of 2026, its turnover reached 7.2 trillion rubles, up nearly 19% year over year, according to the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT). More than 22% of all Russian retail sales now take place online, with Russian platforms accounting for 96% of internet purchases.
Platform Economy
Russian marketplaces are increasingly evolving from simple online storefronts into comprehensive digital ecosystems for businesses. RWB is taking the same approach, building a unified digital framework for entrepreneurial growth around Wildberries. Over time, this could increase the number of sellers and local brands, make products from the regions more accessible and intensify competition among manufacturers.
But the balance between platform operators and entrepreneurs will be critical, so businesses do not become overly dependent on a single ecosystem. These issues will be governed by a new federal law on the platform economy, which takes effect on October 1 this year. The law is expected to make interactions among marketplaces, sellers and users more structured and transparent.
