Ozon fulfilment schemes: FBO, FBS and realFBS — which one and why

On Ozon, who stores the item, who packs it, who carries it? The answer sits in three abbreviations: FBO, FBS and realFBS. Everything below comes from seller videos — Ozon's onboarding material and independent sellers describing their shops. It is not an official tariff document: the figures belong to each video's period, and Ozon's tariffs change often.

The three schemes at a glance

In Ozon's starter session the count is three. Under FBO your share is a small block — getting the goods to an Ozon warehouse; the rest sits with Ozon. Under FBS that flips: storage, packing and the drop-off run are yours, and Ozon only delivers. The third scheme is FBS except that a third-party carrier delivers; one seller notes realFBS came later and differs only in the carrier.

Question	FBO	FBS	realFBS
Where the stock sits	Ozon's warehouse	Your warehouse	Your warehouse
Who picks and packs	Ozon	You	You
Who delivers	Ozon	Ozon, after your drop-off	You or your carrier
Storage paid to Ozon	Yes, per litre	No — the warehouse is yours	No — the warehouse is yours
Returns and damage	Ozon; it opens the discounted card	You	You

The schemes can run side by side, and both Ozon and the sellers recommend it: fast movers into Ozon's warehouse, tests on your own shelves.

FBO: you ship the stock up front

Work starts with a supply request; items come from the catalogue or an Excel file. There are three supply types — through a virtual distribution centre, directly to a named warehouse, or via cross-docking. With the virtual centre Ozon proposes a split across warehouses and gives you three hours to edit it. On a direct supply each warehouse shows a traffic light: green takes everything, yellow excludes some items, red refuses the supply. Volume is counted in litres from the packaging dimensions on the card, and one seller sees goods become sellable two working days to a week after unloading.

What FBO buys you: no warehouse or staff costs, faster delivery, and proximity to the buyer once stock is spread across regional warehouses, which by Ozon's own account lifts you in search. In exchange you follow the packing rules, supply volume is capped, and some categories are refused — the official video names flammable substances and construction materials.

FBS and realFBS: the stock stays with you

Starting on FBS means creating a virtual warehouse and picking a carrier — an integrated Ozon partner, the Russian Post, or one you add. Then the flow: the order lands in the app, you accept it, print the label unique to that shipment, stick the barcode on the item and the label on a non-transparent parcel, and hand it over at the collection point, showing the barcode on your screen.

The clock is tight. One seller cites a hard 24-hour limit from the moment the order arrives; another shows his own warehouse rule — an order received today before 18:00 goes out before 20:00 — and says shipping before 12:00 earns a 2% discount on the sale tariff, while shipping late adds a surcharge. The nearest collection point can be full; some days bring no orders, some bring twenty.

With realFBS the only difference is the carrier: you store and pack, and a transport company you pick, your own courier or an integrated Ozon partner delivers — so you pay Ozon nothing for delivery, though acquiring is still yours. By Ozon's own account the advantage is choosing your geography and carrier, shortening delivery times and selling goods the other schemes refuse; in exchange you own the orders, cancellations and logistics design. One seller puts it more narrowly: on FBS the parcel can cross the country, while on realFBS you hand goods over in your own city.

The numbers — and where the sources disagree

These values come from individual videos, recorded on different dates and in different categories. Check your category's current tariff before using them.

Line	FBO	FBS	realFBS
Commission, example category	19.5%	1–1.2 points above FBO	20.5%
Base logistics, up to 5 l	63 ₽	73 ₽	Not paid to Ozon
Another video, up to 1 l	43 ₽	80 ₽, +10 ₽ per extra litre	—
Shipment processing	—	20 ₽ sorting centre, 30 ₽ collection point	—
Ozon courier pickup	—	1,000 ₽	—
Last mile	5.5%	5.5%	—
Storage	1.5 ₽ per litre per day	None	None

Footnotes: reverse logistics is 84 ₽ in the worked example and always ignores the localisation index. The storage figure comes from two sellers, one reading it off a screenshot and unsure of it; he adds that "litre bonuses" earned on FBO offset storage, though not at every warehouse.

The sources do not agree everywhere. Ozon's own explainer says its remuneration under FBO is higher than under the other schemes, given the work and storage it absorbs; two independent sellers say the opposite about commission — it is lower on FBO. One partly reconciles this: Ozon cut the FBS commission as a concession, but you still overpay overall. The localisation index splits them too: one video says it at best takes 20% off logistics and at worst adds a 20% penalty, another talks of up to 50% off. The direction is agreed, the magnitude is not. A last caveat: the two videos with the most detailed unit economics (the same goods leaving 76,000 ₽ net on FBO against 12,000 ₽ on FBS) come from one team selling its own fulfilment agency and course.

What goes wrong, and who picks what

On FBO the real risk is committing the wrong product up front. One seller calls pulling stock back out of an Ozon warehouse ten circles of hell, says moving it between warehouses is expensive, and adds that disposal requests do not always go through — one of his items has sat there a year and a half, eating storage. Another paid 1,500 ₽ over two weeks while on holiday, for test items that would not sell at any price. A third fell into paid storage only twice in a year and found the tariffs small, so volume and turnover decide. He also mentions an email announcing daily tariffing for FBO from 1 October, but says information was scarce and he was unsure of it — treat that as unconfirmed.

On FBS the real risk is the single warehouse plus time pressure. Ozon's own video is plain: miss your time obligations and the storefront rating drops, frequent delays in handover can get the account blocked, and returns the seller does not collect go to paid disposal. One seller adds that rejecting orders or missing the window can get the shop suspended — "someone said a week", so that is hearsay. The heavier cost of one warehouse is speed: his goods take 3-4 days from Smolensk to St Petersburg while a competitor with stock there delivers in one, and on the first page of the iPhone 11 case category he found only one or two FBS sellers. Another names the invisible cost: his 60 m² would have to grow to 200–250 m², plus staff, packaging and a daily vehicle run — "it looks cheaper in the reports, but the overheads at best even it out."

• Small, fast-moving goods you know sell: FBO, which also absorbs the returns work.
• Bulky, expensive, or goods FBO refuses: FBS. One seller uses prams: committing a 15–20 thousand ₽ item blind is expensive.
• Made-to-order and personalised goods: FBS — a seller points to personalised mugs and a sofa that took 30 days to make.
• Time pressure: with a day job, FBO is easier; with time to carry parcels daily, the FBS saving can be worth it.
• Tight geography or special transport: realFBS.

In short

• The difference is one sentence: who holds the stock, who packs it, who carries it.
• FBO puts nearly all the work on Ozon; the price is stock committed up front, plus storage.
• FBS costs no storage, but commission and logistics are higher and one warehouse slows delivery.
• realFBS is FBS with one change — you or your carrier deliver.
• The figures vary between sources and are period-specific.
• The schemes combine: fast movers to FBO, tests and bulky goods on your shelves.

Commbot folds logistics and storage into its per-card price model, which shows where the unit economics land after a change of scheme.