Zulily, the Seattle-based online retailer acquired by Liberty Media for $2.4 billion in 2015 to be part of QVC, has laid off an undisclosed number of its Seattle and Columbus employees, the tech site GeekWire reported. Zulily has 1300 employees in Seattle alone as of January.
In a note to employees obtained by GeekWire, Zulily CEO Jeff Yurcisin said the company was at “a critical inflection point”, and changes were required.
Zulily had already been working on a rebrand focusing more on adults, while it earned its chops from a “kids & moms” customer base.
Qurate Retail, the recently established unit QVC now reports thru, reported in May that quarterly revenues from Zulily were down 5 percent to $397 million. The decline, following several quarters of growth, appeared to be broad-based, not limited to particular segments.
Overall, Qurate Retail revenue decreased 4% in the 2019 1st quarter.
Yesterday, Qurate Retail announced that former Disney exec Leslie Ferraro would head up QVC and HSN in the US, reporting to Qurate Retail Inc. president and CEO Mike George.