Wildberries has launched a digital auto lending service. Users can now not only select a car in the "Automobiles" section, but also submit an application entirely remotely, receive a bank decision, upload passport photos, and sign the agreement with an electronic signature. The first transaction was completed on a Baic U5 Plus at a rate of 0.01% per year under a manufacturer-subsidized program. The service is currently operating in test mode and is available on the web version of the platform.
From a strategic standpoint, the news makes perfect sense. If a marketplace already sells cars, the next logical step is building services around that category: lending, insurance, and additional financial products. Wildberries itself explicitly explains the launch by pointing out that a significant share of new cars in Russia are purchased on credit, and a fully digital transaction makes such a purchase simpler and faster. This is a completely natural evolution of the category.
It is also worth noting that car sales on marketplaces are no longer a novelty. Ozon was the first to launch full online car sales back in 2023, and by the end of 2025 more than 2,300 vehicles had been ordered through the platform. The most expensive purchases in this category included a Range Rover P530 Autobiography priced at 22 million rubles — a transaction we were directly involved in, incidentally. The market is gradually growing accustomed to purchasing technically complex and high-value goods through digital storefronts.
The logic behind Wildberries' move is therefore clear: if a category is taking shape, infrastructure needs to be built around it. For the marketplace, this is a way to increase average order value, go deeper into fintech, and keep customers within its own ecosystem. For buyers, it is a way to remove some of the friction from the process — no need to visit third-party websites, travel to a bank branch, or piece the transaction together manually.
There is another side to this, however.
The launch of subsidized auto loans is happening against the backdrop of notable tension in Wildberries' relationship with its sellers. In March, the company changed its payout rules — proceeds from sales may now arrive not within a week, but at the end of the following month. At the same time, the marketplace offers a "Withdraw Now" service which, according to the official Wildberries instructions, costs 4.3% of the withdrawal amount. As we know, payment issues arose even for some sellers who paid extra for early access to their funds.
This is precisely why the auto lending news reads on two levels. On one hand, the platform is building out services in a high-value product category and strengthening its own fintech. On the other — when money becomes more expensive and slower to reach sellers on the way out, but cheaper and more convenient for buyers on the way in, it is perceived not only as product development, but as a redistribution of financial priorities within the ecosystem.
In my view, the key takeaway here is this: auto loans on Wildberries are an expected development and not a one-off PR move. It is a sign that marketplaces are going deeper into high-value categories and beginning to build fully-fledged financial products around them. For the market, this matters. For buyers, it means convenience. For sellers and partners, it is one more reason to look not only at the growth of the storefront, but at the economics behind that growth.