Yandex’s press service confirms that Yandex Shop maintains offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The company plans to roll out a new warehouse format in the northern capital, signaling a strategic expansion into dark shopping malls designed to support online order fulfillment and rapid delivery.
Dark shopping centers are compact warehouse-format hubs, typically up to 500 square meters, built to stock a broad range of items for online orders and quick dispatch. As the model scales, the assortment expands to accommodate more product categories and a broader customer base.
At present, Moscow hosts more than 30 dark shopping centers that operate as this streamlined fulfillment network.
The planned increase in warehouse space will widen the product catalog to roughly six thousand items, enabling Yandex Shop to better meet varied customer needs and accelerate service coverage.
The inventory profile of dark shopping malls resembles a modern department store. In these centers, customers can place orders for groceries, ready-to-eat meals, freshly baked bread, seafood and produce, electronics, and even receive packages from Yandex Market, all with convenient pickup or delivery options.
Historically, Yandex conducted an initial test version of the model. Following the pilot, four Lavka dark shopping centers opened in Moscow. The test results indicated that an expanded product range boosted customer loyalty and increased purchase frequency, with shoppers placing about 15 percent more orders in dark malls on average.
Yandex notes that dark shopping malls tend to reach profitability more quickly and raise gross merchandise value per square meter, a key efficiency metric for the network.
Financial results for the third quarter show that Yandex Shop in Russia maintains positive unit economics, with double-digit percentages of GMV contributing to EBITDA and a favorable trajectory over several quarters. This underscores the model’s potential for sustained profitability and growth in the e-commerce ecosystem.
In 2024, Yandex planned new dark mall openings in St. Petersburg and outlined a broader strategy to relocate a substantial portion of its Lavka facilities into dark shopping centers over time, aiming to strengthen delivery speed, assortment, and overall customer experience across major cities in Russia and beyond.