Dive Brief:
- To broaden its customer appeal, Zulily has teamed up with actress Busy Philipps to launch “For All Moms Gifting Advisor,” a personalized text service that provides consumers with Mother’s Day gift recommendations, the company announced on Thursday.
- The service will offer gift recommendations based on the activities moms enjoy, including going on an adventure, having a meal and gathering with loved ones, according to the press release.
- Consumers can receive texts from the service until April 18, per the announcement.
Dive Insight:
In January, Zulily teamed up with Pollfish to survey more than 1,200 U.S.-based parents over age 25 and published the findings of its survey in its 2023 State of Motherhood Report. The report highlighted the shifting definition of the role of “mom.”
“We want to dedicate Mother’s Day to all those who ‘mother’: stepmoms, traditional moms, mothers-in-law, grandmas and all the mom figures who have loved and supported us,” Denise Jaeschke, vice president of integrated customer marketing at Zulily, said in a statement. “At Zulily, we want to offer the best savings so our customers can shop for and celebrate all the moms in their lives.”
Though Zulily is trying to serve all of the consumers that fill a parental or caregiving role in someone’s life, the retailer now has fewer employees to do so. It recently laid off an undisclosed number of employees. Last year, the retailer also laid off corporate employees and closed its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, fulfillment center.
Zulily’s parent company, Qurate Retail Group, recently laid off 400 employees, roughly 12% of its workforce. The workforce reduction could save the company about $60 million, but the company’s CEO, David Rawlinson, said the savings won’t “have a meaningful impact on quarterly results until the second quarter.” The company’s Q4 revenue dropped 13% to $3.5 billion, and its e-commerce revenue declined 14% to $2.3 billion.
