Online furniture retailer Wayfair Is Laying Off 1,750 Workers

Online furniture retailer, Wayfair Inc. has announced it is laying off about 1,750 workers, or 10% of its workforce, as the online furniture seller confronts shrinking sales after a pandemic-driven boom, per a Wall Street Journal report.

This follows an earlier round of layoffs by the company in August 2022, when the company cut about 870 jobs or roughly 5% of its global workforce.

The move by the Boston-based company is part of a restructuring that aims to reduce annual expenses by $1.4 billion. Executives say the two rounds of layoffs will deliver annualized savings of $750 million.

Wayfair, like many of these firms, saw an aggressive expansion during the 2020 pandemic. As of the end of 2021, it full-time employee number had risen to 16,681, from 12,100 at the end of 2018, according to data by WSJ.

Shortly after, sales declined 3% in 2021 and revenue fell almost 13% during the first nine months of 2022 with nearly $1 billion lost, prompting the company to discuss plans to rein in spending and focus on profitability.

The company now joins Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and other technology companies that have announced a slash to workforce numbers in recent weeks amid signs of slowing consumer spending, high inflation and a looming recession.