Just a week after Groupon released a rough earnings report that indicated declining revenue, the latest round of job cuts have swept through the online retailer and flash sale pioneer.
The latest to fall were 30 members of the customer service staff, though Groupon has been quick to note that these employees are a small fraction of the “hundreds” of customer services professionals employed in North America, and an even tinier portion of their “10,000” customer service workers worldwide.
The staffing downsizing is part of what CEO Richard Williams referred to as “a new strategy that we believe sets a stronger stage for long-term success.”
Key elements of that new strategy include a focus on fewer markets.
“I said that we would streamline how and where we do business, that we would dramatically increase our customer acquisition efforts and that we would move away from empty calories — those low-margin product categories that drive short-term revenue but fewer long-term benefits — particularly in our shopping business,” Williams noted in a letter to shareholders last week.
This layoff is small, particularly when compared to the 1,000 positions Groupon cut in September 2015.
The re-alignment of corporate priorities also includes the hire of Mike Randolfi as the firm’s CFO. Randolfi had been chief financial officer at online travel company Orbitz Worldwide Inc.
