Amazon competitor Zulily curtails operations, lays off hundreds

Amazon competition Zulily, which was once valued at $7 billion, is laying off hundreds of employees in the US while shutting down operations, according to media reports and state filings.

Zulily will lay off 292 workers in Seattle and elsewhere in Washington, effective from February 7, according to a notification from the state Employment Security Department, reports Seattle Times.

The 13-year-old company is also shutting down its Pioneer Square headquarters and several other facilities in other states, according to GeekWire.

The closing of warehouses in Nevada and Ohio will result in another 547 layoffs, according to notices from both states.

The latest job cuts follow several earlier rounds of layoffs at Zulily, as well as the resignation of its CEO Terry Boyle in October.

Zulily was launched in 2010 by Mark Vadon and Darrell Cavens, former executives with online jewellery retailer Blue Nile.

In 2013, Zulily had 12.6 million active customers, and made $331 million in revenue, up nearly 700 per cent from 2010.

Zulily went public in 2013 in an IPO originally valued at $2.6 billion and but by the end of the first day, that figure almost doubled, according to media reports.

By 2014, Zulily had a market value of $7 billion on annual sales of $1 billion.

“Only Amazon and Old Navy hit the billion-dollar revenue mark in a shorter amount of time,” according to reports.

In 2015, Zulily was purchased by Liberty Interactive-QVC, later renamed Qurate, for a reported $2.4 billion.

In May this year, Qurate sold the company to Los Angeles private equity firm Regent.