E-commerce marketplace Etsy announced plans to eliminate around 220 jobs, representing roughly 10% of its workforce, as the company is set to undertake a major organisational restructuring under CEO Kruti Patel Goyal. The layoffs primarily affect employees in the product, engineering, design, research, and analytics teams. According to the company, the move is intended to streamline decision-making, improve collaboration, and accelerate product development rather than reduce costs.
In a message to employees, the CEO said Etsy is redesigning its organizational structure to remove complexity and create smaller, more agile teams. She noted that the company has grown significantly over the years, leading to overlapping responsibilities and slower execution across key business functions.
It is anticipated that the reorganization will lower the number of management layers, and improve coordination between engineers, product, and design departments. The company's management hopes that the restructure will enable Etsy to come up with new features that are much faster than before, and respond to changing requirements.
This move comes at a time when Etsy is trying to build on its market place after it has witnessed sluggish consumer spending and reduced demand for discretionary items in some important markets. Etsy had been under the pressure of changing shopping behavior and increased competition from other online players.
The company said the latest restructuring is designed to position the company for its next phase of growth by improving operational efficiency and increasing the speed at which products are developed and delivered. Affected employees will receive severance packages, extended healthcare benefits where applicable, career transition assistance, and support in finding new employment opportunities.
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Etsy stated that they are still dedicated to investing in their marketplace, seller tools, and customer experience. The company is planning to work on developing new features that can enable independent sellers to have access to buyers and provide them with an improved search and discovery system.
In contrast to cost-saving measures, Etsy's most recent steps can be considered as strategic actions aimed at making the internal processes of the company simpler and more effective, given the fact that the competitive nature of the global e-commerce industry keeps increasing.