Wayfair To Downsize Its Global Workforce By Laying Off About 900 Employees
August 20, 2022 By Awanish Kumar
(Image Credit Google)
Wayfair, the online home goods retailer, announced today that it is set to lay off close to 900 employees as a way to rearrange investment requirements and meet the company’s current needs. The news surfaced after the company announced a hiring freeze back in May.
According to SEC filings, the layoffs account for close to 5% of the company’s global workforce and 10% of its corporate team, with 400 jobs being cut in Boston at the company’s HQ.
“We were seeing the tailwinds of the pandemic accelerate the adoption of e-commerce shopping, and I personally pushed hard to hire a strong team to support that growth,” said founder and CEO Niraj Shah in the company’s memo to employees. “This year, that growth has not materialized as we had anticipated. Our team is too large for the environment we are now in, and unfortunately, we need to adjust.”
In the company’s second-quarter results published on August 4th, Wayfair reported a fall in active consumers, orders per customer, order deliveries, and a slight reduction in orders delivered via Wayfair’s mobile app and other sectors. Overall, Wayfair witnessed a nearly 15% decrease in net revenue compared to its earnings in 2021.
As expenses have soared lately and fears of a recession loom large, companies in many industries have downsized their team due to a changing sales environment after the peak period of the pandemic and saying they now need to save money. The Boston Globe and Forbes reported in February 2020 that Wayfair laid off about 550 workers, with Shah blaming Wayfair’s “rapid pursuit of growth,” saying that it “had its drawbacks.” Wayfair announced a hiring freeze that would last 90 days in May of this year.
By Awanish Kumar
I keep abreast of the latest technological developments to bring you unfiltered information about gadgets.