Shopify to reduce workforce by 20 per cent and sell logistics business
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Shopify Inc. says it will reduce its head count by about 20 per cent and sell its logistics business to Flexport, a supply chain management company.
Shopify Inc. says it will reduce its head count by about 20 per cent and sell its logistics business to Flexport, a supply chain management company.
The Ottawa-based e-commerce giant announced the moves Thursday morning and positioned them as a way to help it focus on its main quest: making commerce easier.
But achieving that feat means reducing "side quests" which chief executive Tobi Lutke described as "always distracting because the company has to split focus."
"Technological progress always arcs towards simplicity, and entrepreneurs succeed more when we simplify. But now we are at the dawn of the AI era and the new capabilities that are unlocked by that are unprecedented," he said, in an open letter announcing the changes.
"Our main quest demands from us to build the best thing that is now possible, and that has just changed entirely."
Lutke's note did not quantify how many staff would be departing the company, but before Shopify laid off about 1,000 workers last summer it had roughly 10,000 employees.
"I recognize the crushing impact this decision has on some of you, and did not make this decision lightly," Lutke wrote.
