Negotiable Option: Wildberries Expands C2C Commerce on Its Platform
Russia’s largest online marketplace, Wildberries, has introduced a bargaining feature that allows users to negotiate prices directly within its resale service. The move marks another step in the company’s expansion from traditional e-commerce into customer-to-customer commerce.
Within the WB Resale service, buyers can request a price reduction of between 5% and 20%. There is no need to start a chat conversation. Instead, users simply click the “Suggest a Price” button on a product listing.
Sellers can either lower the price or ignore the request. When a seller accepts a lower price, users who submitted offers receive a push notification, helping accelerate the transaction. The feature is currently available only to selected users and only through the mobile app, although the marketplace says it plans to expand access.
Expanding the Business Model
Wildberries is integrating C2C marketplace behaviors directly into its existing infrastructure of pickup points and automated payment systems. As a result, users can not only resell unwanted items through a familiar app, but also negotiate prices without moving into private communication channels, where fraud risks are significantly higher. Items for sale gain a second life, while the growth of recommerce helps reduce demand for new manufacturing and lowers the volume of discarded goods, cutting waste and conserving resources.
From Feature to Ecosystem
The next stage could involve mechanisms designed to increase transaction trustworthiness, including seller ratings, shipment insurance, and anti-fraud algorithms. What began as an additional section within Wildberries could evolve into a standalone C2C platform operating inside the broader marketplace ecosystem.
In effect, Wildberries is moving into territory traditionally occupied by Avito, combining a classified-listings model with its own logistics infrastructure. Its nationwide network of pickup points, highly developed delivery operations, and integrated payment tools create a powerful competitive advantage. At the same time, Avito retains a lead in category breadth and continues investing in better standards for peer-to-peer transactions, while its audience keeps growing. The platform’s daily audience now exceeds 20 million users.
The Road to a C2C Strategy
Wildberries launched private sales in June 2025, initially as a pilot program. Selected users could post listings only for products originally purchased through the marketplace. Two months later, access to WB Resale was expanded to all customers. Another six months later, in February 2026, private sellers were allowed to list products purchased from third-party platforms as well.
The move expands the company’s business model from B2C commerce toward a full-scale C2C ecosystem in which users act simultaneously as buyers and sellers. In the longer term, the model could become an exportable solution for markets across the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), where Wildberries already operates.
Recommerce Becomes a Mainstream Digital Commerce Channel
According to 2025 data from the Association of Internet Trade Companies (AKIT), online sales account for roughly 19% of total retail turnover in Russia, reaching 11.5 trillion rubles (approximately $151 billion). More than 96% of those sales take place on domestic platforms.
Now recommerce itself is becoming part of mainstream online retail. Throughout this year, Wildberries will continue refining a universal commerce model in which businesses and private sellers operate side by side. The company’s evolution from an online store into a multifunctional digital ecosystem is continuing. If the initiative succeeds, other Russian marketplaces may follow. Increased competition between those platforms and Avito could further accelerate the evolution of the platform economy.
