Business

Boston-based Wayfair announces additional layoffs

The cutbacks represent 10 percent of the retailer's global workforce.

January 22, 2023

1 minute to read

Boston-based home goods retailer Wayfair announced Friday that it’s cutting 1,750 jobs in its second round of layoffs in six months.

The layoffs represent 10 percent of the company’s global workforce and include 937 Massachusetts workers. This new round of layoffs is about double the size of cuts the retailer made in August, according to The Boston Globe.

Wayfair co-founder and CEO Niraj Shah sent a letter to staff explaining the cost-cutting measures and company restructuring.

“Unfortunately, along the way, we over-complicated things, lost sight of some of our fundamentals, and simply grew too big,” Shah said.

The company is offering severance based on each employee’s circumstances, which will vary by country, tenure, and level. Wayfair employees in the U.S. will get a minimum of 10 weeks’ pay from Friday and will have continued benefit coverage and vesting of existing equity through March 2023.

“The changes today are largely about reducing management layers, right-sizing in certain places, and reorganizing to be more efficient,” Shah said.

In August, Wayfair cut about 870 jobs, including 400 Boston-based employees. At the time, the layoffs represented about 5 percent of the retailer’s workforce. The company said those cutbacks were necessary to manage its operating costs following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, as Americans hunkered down at home, the company saw a 55 percent sales growth thanks to online shoppers looking to spruce up their homes. But in 2021, as pandemic pressures lifted and normalcy resumed, the retailer reported a 3 percent decline in sales.

Wayfair’s stock jumped more than 20 percent Friday after news of the layoffs broke, as the cuts will reportedly save the company $750 million a year, according to CNBC.