Wildberries lost 10% of its reach amid drone attacks

How did the platforms respond to the data?

Representatives of RWB (the group managing Wildberries) criticized the methodology. They called Rodnaya Rech's approach, based on Mediascope data, "not sufficiently up-to-date and applicable to digital platforms." In other words, the company believes that classic reach metrics do not reflect the marketplace's actual business condition.

Yandex Market also disagreed with treating reach as a key metric. The company said it focuses on other indicators:

• number of active buyers;
• number of orders;
• number of items per order;
• time spent on the platform.

By this logic, the 10% growth in time spent alongside an 8% decline in reach can be seen by the company as a rather positive signal: the audience has become smaller but more engaged.

Why does this matter for the market?

The divergence in numbers between platforms shows that marketplaces are weathering the consequences of drone attacks on warehouse infrastructure differently. Wildberries, whose warehouses have repeatedly been targeted, lost both reach and user time. Ozon, on the contrary, demonstrated double-digit growth in both parameters and, according to the study, increased audience engagement.

For advertisers and sellers, these figures are a signal to revisit how budgets are distributed across platforms: the dynamics of reach and time on a platform directly affect the effectiveness of placements.

It is also telling that marketplaces continue to expand their presence in influencer marketing. It was previously reported that marketplaces have become the most common advertiser category for Russian bloggers: 62% of creators collaborated with them over the past year. In other words, while losing reach as shopping platforms, market players are simultaneously investing in attracting audiences through content marketing.

The debate over methodology — reach versus number of active buyers and orders — is likely to continue: platforms are interested in metrics that suit them, while advertisers want independent and comparable data.