Global tech giants including Microsoft, Google and Spotify have kicked off the new year by unveiling thousands of job cuts.
Online retailers have also been reducing headcount in a bid to cut costs amid a slowdown in ecommerce sales.
Retail Gazette looks at five big retailers that have unveiled job cuts in recent months.
Amazon
Amazon is to axe more than 18,000 jobs from its workforce, the largest number in its history.
This equates to around 6% of the online giant’s roughly 300,000-person corporate workforce.
The online giant which employs 1.5 million people globally, did not say which countries the job cuts would be in, but confirmed they would include Europe.
Chief executive Andy Jassy said: “These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure.”
The layoffs will mostly impact Amazon’s brick-and-mortar stores, which include Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, alongside its people, experience and technology solutions functions.
Boohoo
Boohoo is cutting a raft of roles across both its offices and warehouses.
The online retailer, which unveiled a 11% sales decline over the golden quarter, placed 50 roles at risk at its Manchester head office last week.
100 roles also at risk at its London office, with staff across the ecommerce, buying and design departments currently undergoing a consultation.
The retailer is planning to move teams from the businesses it has recently acquired, including Oasis, Karen Millen, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Coast and Burton, under Debenhams.com.
Meanwhile, Boohoo is also rationalising its group warehouses by closing its Wellingborough distribution centre in Northamptonshire.
The move will put 420 jobs at risk. Staff impacted by the move will have the opportunity to apply for similar roles at the group’s other UK distribution centres in Daventry and Burnley.
Asos
Asos is cutting 100 roles across all departments as it cuts costs across the business.
The announcement came in late October, after the retailer revealed an operating loss of almost £10 million in its year to 31 August, 2022.
Asos’ new CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte promised “decisive, short-term operational measures to simplify the business, alongside steps to unlock longer-term sustainable growth”.
Not On The High Street
The retailer currently employs roughly 220 staff.
CEO Leanne Rothwell said the business needed to “ensure it is structured to mobilise us for success”.
“Over the next few weeks I will be working with our teams to organise ourselves differently. The shape of the business will change in some areas and it is likely that a number of people will leave the business,” she said.
Wayfair
Wayfair revealed this week that it will cut 1,750 jobs, which is about 10% of its global workforce, as part of a $1.4bn cost-saving drive.
It will look to reduce its corporate employees by 18% – which equates to 1,200 roles – in an effort to scale down operating costs as the demand for its products declines.
The online retailer said the restructuring move, including the 870 jobs cut it made in August last year, represents $750 million in annual cost savings.
Wayfair chief executive and co-chairman Niraj Shah said: “Although difficult, these are important decisions to get back to our 20-year roots as a focused, lean company premised on high ambitions and great execution.
“The changes…strengthen our future without reducing our total addressable market, our strategic objectives, or our ability to deliver them over time.”
Shah added that the retailer had scaled its spend “too quickly” over the last few years and is “simply returning” to operating in a highly productive and efficient way.
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