Dive Brief:
- Along with others in the tech industry, eBay is laying off about 500 employees internationally, trimming its workforce by 4%, according to a Tuesday SEC filing.
- In a message to employees, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said the company eliminated these positions to invest in new technologies and streamline its corporate structure to make decisions quickly.
- Some of the layoffs will be subject to consultation, but affected workers will receive severance and employee incentive payments, Iannone said.
Dive Insight:
EBay isn’t the only retailer to announce layoffs in recent weeks. Others, including GameStop and Kohl’s, have also let go of employees this year. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas report, retailers ended 13,000 positions in January, up 3,225% from the year prior. The layoffs come as retailers, especially venture capital-funded companies, are feeling the pinch as funding declines.
EBay hasn’t released its Q4 earnings yet, but its third-quarter results didn’t show signs of growth. Its Q3 revenue declined 5% to $2.4 billion, and its gross merchandise volumes dropped 11% to $17.7 billion, according to its earnings report.
“Today’s actions are designed to strengthen our ability to deliver better end-to-end experiences for our customers and to support more innovation and scale across our platform,” Iannone said in the message. “They also help us make sure we’re concentrating on where we can make the biggest impact, including expanding Focus Categories, creating trusted experiences and investing in new technologies.”
Despite the challenging economic environment and its financial woes, eBay has continued to pour money into non-fungible tokens and other technologies. Last March, eBay introduced a digital wallet where users can hold their sales revenue and announced plans to launch a storage facility and digital marketplace for collectibles dubbed eBay Vault. In June, the e-commerce giant bought KnownOrigin, an NFT marketplace, for an undisclosed sum as part of its efforts to become a platform for digital collectibles. In a similar move, eBay bought another collectibles platform, TCGplayer, in August for about $295 million.
