Online retailer Zulily laid off corporate employees last week as its parent company looks to cut costs amid broader industry concerns related to e-commerce growth.
Fewer than 100 positions were impacted. A spokesperson for Qurate Retail Group, which acquired Seattle-based Zulily in 2015, confirmed the cuts but did not provide specific numbers on jobs affected.
“Last week, we announced to our team members some hard choices we have made for our organization to bring our operating expenses in line with our revenue and position our business for future growth,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Zulily employs more than 900 people in Seattle, according to LinkedIn.
Zulily’s revenue decreased 38% in the first quarter to $232 million, Qurate reported earlier this month. Operating losses grew to $38 million, from $11 million in the year-ago quarter.
“Zulily revenue decreased primarily reflecting product scarcity largely driven by supply chain constraints and marketing inefficiencies due to cost inflation and privacy changes on certain social media platforms, which caused Zulily to reduce marketing spend, affecting its customer acquisition and retention,” Qurate said in its earnings report.
Zulily also took a $2 million restructuring charge in the quarter mostly related to its “regional office space strategy” and closure of a Pennsylvania facility, which resulted in 504 job cuts.
The company also took a $396 million operating loss in Q4 due to a $363 million “non-cash impairment charge related to its tradename and goodwill.” We’ve followed up with Zulily to get details on the charge.
Other e-commerce companies including Amazon are seeing growth slow following two years of online shopping surges during the pandemic. Inflation and supply chain woes are also impacting online retailers. UPS last month projected e-commerce delivery growth to cool.
Zulily in March hired former Nordstrom exec Terry Boyle as president and CEO. Boyle replaced Jeff Yurcisin, the former Amazon executive and Shopbop CEO who took over in May 2018 for longtime CEO and co-founder Darrell Cavens.
Zulily went public in 2013 and was acquired by Qurate for $2.4 billion in August 2015.