Starting on Ozon from zero: the first steps sellers actually take

From the transcripts of six Russian-language seller videos on starting from scratch. These are independent sellers and agencies, not Ozon documentation, recorded in 2024, 2025 and early 2026. Tariffs change often — read every number as that seller's own figure for that period.

Registration is the easy step — and beginners do it first

Farit Garifulin's order: analysis and product selection, then getting the goods out of China, only then the ИП, the bank account and the Ozon seller account, and finally the card. He frames it as a warning: beginners register first and decide what to sell afterwards, when that is the least work of all — an hour of your own time, about a week for the entity.

Pavel's 2025 walkthrough confirms it: with the entity and account in place, registration takes five minutes. The 2024 walkthrough shows the screens: seller.ozon.ru, phone, ИНН, field of activity, store name, tax regime — which decides whether you stay on the default УСН. The real decision comes earlier — which legal form.

Pavel goes straight to ИП on 6% УСН with one addition: write 7% into the unit economics sheet, because of the extra 1% owed above 300,000 ₽ of turnover.

What gets decided before the first shipment

Product. Pavel puts roughly 80% of the outcome on it: wrong product or wrong season, and advertising, SEO and infographics will not rescue it. Farit tells beginners to skip seasonal goods, clothing and bulky boxes; Pavel also fences off electronics and kids' goods.

Niche width. Dasha Syomina is the most concrete. Her first product sat in a niche with under 200 cards on the main query: two cards on a small budget held second-third place with steady sales. In the 1,000-card niche she tried next, competitors spend far more and her sales are visibly lower. A quiet niche runs on ~3,000 ₽ a month of трафареты per card, a crowded one on 30-60 thousand ₽ and up; one big seller answered that question with a screenshot of 60,000 ₽ in seven days. The number that matters, she insists, is cards, not sellers.

FBO or FBS. All lean towards FBO. The 2026-plan video says FBO only: dodging storage fees can cost up to a hundred thousand ₽ across a thousand units. Pavel argues speed — FBO in Moscow delivers next day, FBS 1-2 days later, which feeds ranking and the buyer's choice.

Unit economics, before you pay for the goods. Their one shared rule. Pavel says the old x3-x4 markup worked in 2021-2022 and does not now; advertising belongs in the sheet too, at ~20% on average, sometimes 15%, never less, and 10% or 7% once a card settles. The 2026-plan video sets minimum margin at 10%, red zone 5-7%.

Build the card before you pay. Ozon can demand a certificate in a category that never needed one — his example is a wrist support sold for years until Ozon began asking at card creation. Create the card first and you know the rule before the money leaves.

How much capital sellers say you need

The 2026-plan author puts the starting position at ~200,000 ₽: one month of stock per SKU is 5-10 thousand ₽, so a 15-SKU test reserve fits under it. The million-and-a-half figure, he argues, comes from inexperience or from hyped niches like clothing — in his numbers, cheap goods returned 50-60% on capital while clothing returned ~10%.

The 2024 seller answers through turnover: selling 100,000 ₽ a month needs about 200,000 ₽ of capital. His line-by-line, from when they bought from Russian suppliers:

That leaves ~21,500 ₽ a month for office and salaries, before content and pushing a card to the top. (The auto-caption says 35% for advertising, but only 3.5% reconciles with the 21.5% he reports; he notes it is much higher while a card is new.)

A third account lists the start as investment lines: analytics, the China purchase, freight, a ~10,000 ₽ packing kit and a bank account — with Ozon registration itself at 0 ₽ — plus the ИП's fixed contributions (~52,000 ₽ a year for 2025) and an accountant at 2-3 thousand ₽ a year. His turnkey example: 10 products, 100-150 units each, ~10,000 ₽ per item, ~70% assumed return, planned net of ~80,000 ₽ at best and ~55-60,000 ₽ on average.

His sharpest warning is about timing: Ozon pays only after the buyer collects, so a store goes cash-negative exactly while turnover climbs. Keep money on the account so ads are not cut for debt, and reserve half of your outlay — about 3 of 10 products sell out in week one, and growth depends on rebuying those three fast.

How long until the first sales

The 2026-plan video spreads it over twelve months. Month 1: product selection and ordering. Months 1-2, while the goods travel: cards and advertising. Then stock arrives, goes to an Ozon warehouse, and selling begins. The first test batch has a 1-1.5 month supply horizon; after that you hold 2-3 months of stock permanently. Months 4-6 are SKU expansion, 7-9 a first part-time hire, 10-12 white import.

On the first order Pavel is careful — sometimes they come the same day, sometimes not. His real point: a very high ДРР in the first three weeks is normal, so you ignore it and grow impressions. One precondition sits in between — both he and the 2026-plan video say the first reviews come from самовыкуп, 3-5 being enough on a quiet product. Invested money only starts coming back after one to one and a half months.

All these videos also sell a course or an agency: the 2026-plan author says a student's store launched on under 300,000 ₽ and hit 1 mln ₽ of turnover in month one, and that 95% of ~70 people in his programme profited from month one — his own claims, the showcase rather than the average.

The sequencing mistakes they warn about

• Making the entity step one. An ИП and bank account opened before the product decision just sit idle.
• Big stock in an untested product. Pavel: not 1,000 units at the start — 100-200 for a cheap item, split across 2-3 warehouses. The 2026 plan adds: never buy half a year of stock, since a commission change turns it into dead weight.
• Advertising left out of the unit economics. Pavel's most common consultation case: the product does not sell, ads go on, the margin disappears.
• Entering a promo at your normal price. Pavel launches cards high, so an Ozon promo drops them to the price he planned anyway. Launched cheap, the fix is exiting all promos, raising the price and waiting 3-4 weeks for the median to update.

They disagree on three points:

• How many SKUs? The 2026 plan wants 10-20 articles at small volumes. Pavel says 20 products at 20 units each is pointless on a small budget — no ad hypotheses tested, no warehouse spread.
• When to register? Farit says after the goods are ordered; the 2026 plan wants cards built before the Chinese payment, which needs an open account.
• Promotions. The 2026 plan says do not lean on them; the 2024 seller calls them a strong tool, taken selectively, with prices raised weeks before the November ones.

In short

• Order: analysis and product → supplier and order → ИП, bank account, registration → card. Registration takes minutes, the entity a week.
• Most run ИП on УСН (~80%). Put 7% in the unit economics.
• Quoted starting capital: ~200,000 ₽; one month of stock per SKU is 5-10 thousand ₽.
• Budget advertising from day one: ~20% on a new card, 10-7% later.
• Create the card before paying the supplier; keep half your outlay in reserve — first money back in 1-1.5 months.
• A high ДРР in the first three weeks is normal; a card without 3-5 reviews does not sell.
• Every figure is one store at one moment; recalculate for your own category.