Wayfair To Cut 10 Pct of Global Workforce — Retail Bum

Furniture eTailer Wayfair is planning to cut 10% of its global workforce, a move that will impact 1,750 corporate jobs and save the company $750 million.

The news marks the second time the company is laying off workers in less than a year. In August 2022, the company let go of 5% of its workforce, with 400 workers impacted at its Boston headquarters.

According to CEO Niraj Shah, the layoffs were necessary as the company “simply grew too big” after the pandemic began and struggled to retain the spike in its sales volume.

“In hindsight, similar to our technology peers, we scaled our spend too quickly over the last few years,” Shah said in a statement. “The good news for Wayfair is that we have operated in a highly productive and efficient way for the vast majority of our 20-year history, and we are now simply returning to that.”

Affected U.S. employees will get ten weeks of severance pay and access to benefits till March 2023.

Wayfair’s shares were down 5% on Thursday, contributing to a 75% decline in stock value over the past year.

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on January 20, 2023.