Seattle-based online retailer Zulily plans to lay off over 800 people in three states, according to mandatory notices filed Thursday with employment officials in Washington, Nevada and Ohio. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with Washington’s Employment Security Department indicates that Zulily plans to cut 292 jobs in Seattle beginning on or about Feb. 7, and that the closure is permanent.
Similar notices with officials in Nevada indicate that 273 people in McCarran will lose their jobs, due to a fulfillment center closure. A letter submitted to Ohio officials states that the company will be closing its fulfillment center located in Lockbourne, and as a result 274 people will be impacted “including remote employees who report to the facility.”
In May, Los Angeles-based global private equity firm Regent bought Zulily from Qurate Retail Group, the parent company of QVC and HSN. Neither Zulily nor Regent immediately responded to emailed requests for comment from Retail Dive seeking more information about the layoffs or the current or future status of the company’s operations.
A spokesperson for Washington’s employment security department did not provide further information, stating in an email that, in Washington, other information from the WARN filing is considered confidential.
About two days after news of the layoffs broke, the company appeared to announce that it was shutting down. GeekWire reported that Zulily’s website on Saturday published a message that said “All sales are final during Zulily’s going-out-of-business sale.”
But that message appeared to be gone as of Monday morning. However, Zulily’s homepage on Monday sported the phrase: “Final sale. All items must go.”
Many employees took to LinkedIn to announce that they’ve learned they’ll soon be out of a job.
“I find myself in the same boat as my fellow teammates,” said Kristi Schweitzer in a post on LinkedIn, who listed the job title of production coordinator, writer and editor. “Zulily, the company I called home and have loved working for the past 3+ years, is closing in the coming months. Looking for my next dream job.”
Erin Hanson, a talent acquisition leader at Zulily, posted on LinkedIn that the company is “unfortunately closing its doors in the upcoming months” and was “truly a unique place, and it’s been made that way by the people who have helped to form it over the years.” Hanson’s post also includes a link to a spreadsheet of people who have chosen to publicly share their information as part of their job search.
Qurate bought Zulily for $2.4 billion in 2015. But in the months before Qurate sold it, that segment of its business hadn’t performed well. In Q1, Zulily’s revenue fell 17% to $192 million from $232 million a year earlier. The business also posted a Q1 operating loss of $43 million.
