// Zalando will axe up to 5% of its workforce amid the economic slowdown
// Details of the jobs cuts are still being worked out but will include senior-level positions
Europe’s largest online fashion retailer Zalando is set to cut hundreds of jobs to help it confront a “more challenging” economic environment after years of rapid growth.
“We have decided to start a programme that will remove several hundred overhead roles across many of our teams,” co-chief executives David Schneider and Robert Gentz said in a letter to staff seen by the FT.
Details of the jobs cull are still being worked out, but will include senior-level positions although roles in customer care, logistics centres and at its outlet stores would not be affected, it confirmed.
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The Zalando job cuts are the latest in a wave of layoffs across the tech industry worldwide, as the once unassailable sector preps for a downturn.
The German online fashion retailer, which operates in 25 European countries, currently has a workforce of around 17,000 people and the proposed job cuts will impact 5% of staff.
Zalando was one of the big winners as pandemic lockdowns forced more consumers online, but the end of that boom has hit the retailer’s sales growth and hammered its share price.
Last June, the business was forced to issue a profit warning after drastically downgrading its full-year earnings forecasts amid the cost-of-living crisis.
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