Ozon to charge pickup points for its services from 1 December, scraps second stage of agency fee increase planned for July 2027

According to logirus.ru, Ozon, one of Russia’s two largest online marketplaces, will start charging pickup points, the outlets where customers collect marketplace orders, a fee for its services from 1 December 2026. The marketplace has also cancelled the second stage of the agency fee increase that was scheduled for July 2027. The source does not explain who pays the agency fee or how it relates to the new charge. Ozon announced the changes at a working meeting with AUREK, the Association of E-commerce Market Participants, a Russian group representing online sellers and pickup point owners.

At the same meeting, the platform addressed four more issues raised by pickup point owners: the Polka (“Shelf”) service, storage rules, protected zones around existing points, and the bonus for operating without orders from other marketplaces. Some of the changes will take effect in November, before the December charge.

What changes inside the pickup point

The Polka service remains mandatory, and pickup point owners will not be able to opt out of it. The source does not explain what the service includes. Owners will only be able to suspend the service temporarily, through the marketplace’s support team, and the report gives no limit on the length of such a pause or the conditions for approving it.

From November, Ozon will move to unified address storage, where each item is assigned a specific storage location, and a single process for handling goods. For pickup point staff, this means less manual work with storage locations:

From November, unified address-based storage and a single goods-handling process will be introduced, so separate racks and “re-scanning” will no longer be needed.

From logirus.ru

The maximum time an order can be stored at a pickup point will be cut to 14 days. The previous limit is not given. Ozon also said it will dispose of unsold stock that has stayed beyond the permitted period itself, without involving the pickup point owner. It is unclear whether this covers uncollected orders.

Protected zones and new point openings

Pickup point owners asked why new points are opening next to existing ones, even though each existing point has a protected zone around it. Ozon explained that it opens new points without regard to protected zones mainly in large residential complexes in Moscow and St Petersburg. In other regions it does so selectively, when an existing point risks being overloaded.

The marketplace also explained how to read its map of locations open for new points:

If a residential complex is available on the map for opening, the calculations have already been made. If there is an error, Ozon is ready to consider an appeal.

From logirus.ru

Ozon did not specify which calculations it means, how to submit an appeal or how long a review takes.

The 0.6% bonus and the association’s position

Ozon does not plan to scrap the 0.6% bonus for handling no orders from other platforms. A pickup point that works only with Ozon will continue to receive it. AUREK disagreed with keeping the bonus and resolved to send an official letter to regulators, without naming which agencies. The base on which the bonus is calculated is not disclosed.

The association is also asking Ozon to freeze pickup point tariffs for at least 1.5-2 years. According to logirus.ru, the issue is still under discussion and no decision has been made.

What this means for pickup point owners and sellers

The key date for pickup point owners is 1 December. From that day, each point will face a new cost item: the fee for Ozon’s services. The size of the fee has not been published, so owners should check the terms with their Ozon manager before December and recalculate the profitability of their point. How the cancellation of the second stage of the agency fee increase will affect pickup point income remains unclear. The tariff freeze of 1.5-2 years that the association is seeking has not been agreed.

Owners who hoped to get out of Polka can only suspend it temporarily through support. With the move to unified address storage in November, separate racks and “re-scanning” will no longer be needed. Ozon has not said which requirements for placing goods will remain.

For Ozon sellers and buyers, the new storage limit matters. An order will wait for the customer at a pickup point for no more than 14 days. Anyone planning a point in a new residential complex should check Ozon’s map. If the map shows the complex as open for a new point, the marketplace has already done its calculations for it. If an owner believes the map is wrong, they can send Ozon an appeal.