eBay Lays Off ~1000 Employees, CEO Blames Macroeconomic Headwinds, Expenses Outpace Growth

[valueaddedresource]

Breaking news: eBay is laying off 1,000 employees, about 9% of workforce. CEO Jamie Iannone says headcount and expenses are outpacing growth.

Exact details about specific areas affected have not been disclosed, so not sure what the impact on sellers will be yet but...this does not bode well for the Q4 report in my opinion. 👀

https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ensuring-ebays-long-term-success/

We are on a path to building a stronger eBay for the future — one that is growing, and resilient in the face of any challenge. Over the past three years, we made fundamental changes in our experiences across categories and accelerated the pace of innovation at eBay. In areas where we’re investing, we are seeing consistent increases in customer satisfaction and a meaningful improvement in our growth relative to the market.

Our strategy is the right one, but there is more we can do to ensure our success. We need to better organize our teams for speed — allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more quickly. Today, I am sharing news about changes we are implementing to better position eBay for long-term, sustainable growth.

The most significant and toughest of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles or an estimated 9% of full-time employees. Additionally, we plan to scale back the number of contracts we have within our alternate workforce over the coming months. These are not actions we take lightly — and we recognize the impact they will have on all eBayers. We have to say goodbye to people who have made so many important contributions to the eBay community and culture, and this isn’t easy.

The Need for Change

Despite facing external pressures, like the challenging macroeconomic environment, we know we can be better with the factors we control. While we are making progress against our strategy, our overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business. To address this, we're implementing organizational changes that align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world.

[lakefor94]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

"scale back contracts with alternate workforces" - does that translate to off shore outsourced CS and IT?

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A few months ago eBay removed the callback option from one of the primary help pages, which, in my opinion with no facts to back it up other than the change that took place, could point to them preparing for downsized CS phone service. Downsized even more than the big 2020 changes. 🤷

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Been thinking/stating this all along. Sellers have to navigate via reading and comprehending policies and then execute without eBay's assistance.

Been sniffing AMZ's tracks and trail for years.

Would like to see eBay do more for buyers in the customer service roles. Sellers can fend for themselves, buyers need help and the vast majority of their problems are due to the unscrupulous sellers. 

[isaiah53-57]

Here's poking a little fun at the verbiage in the layoff announcement by CEO Jaime Iannone:

We are on a path to building a stronger eBay for the future — one that is growing (Fees), and resilient in the face of any (Fees) challenge. Over the past three years, we made fundamental changes in our experiences across categories and accelerated the pace of (Fee) innovation at eBay. In (Fee) areas where we’re investing, we are seeing consistent (Fee)increases in customer (Fee) satisfaction and a meaningful improvement in our (Fees) growth relative to the market.

Our (Fee) strategy is the right one, but there is more we can do to ensure our (Fee) success. We need to better organize our teams for (Fee) speed — allowing us to be more (Fee) nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make (Fee) decisions more quickly. Today, I am sharing news about (Fee) changes we are implementing to better (Fee) position eBay for long-term, sustainable (Fee) growth.

End of Poking Fun...

Sooo... 9% of the workforce gone huh? - Will that make ebay stink 9% more now?

[frugality_inc]

I mean, is anyone surprised? This platform continues dying a slow death. 

Management has no idea what they're doing here. I'm back to 2018 numbers. Glad Amazon and Walmart is picking up the slack, plus more. It costs more to sell here versus Amazon and Walmart when you factor in every cost outside of fees.

The real slap in the face is that there's dividend increases and stock buybacks versus layoffs. Take care of your people and your people will take care of you.

[deltilogical]

at a big contemporary tech corporation  10% of the workforce can be cut fairly easily; roles outsourced, combined, eliminated etc.  

[retro_entertainment_collectibles]

Be interesting to know what areas of Macroeconomics he is speaking of.

I can only guess that it be political environment as that storm is brewing and will hit this year perhaps very hard w/ the election and the who knows what of the Shop Safe legislation.  The other I'd guess be demographics but again only guesses.

[hartungcards]

I feel bad for the employees getting fired at home tomorrow.  They'll probably get an email that says, "You started your job at $15.00/hour, now it's at $0.00/hour.  Give it another look."

[12345jamesstamps]

I believe they are full time employees that they are getting rid off...not those from those two other countries which I won't mention...which cost nothing to keep...

I remember a while back...no sure how long ago...I would talk to those offshore and hear like a family having dinner in the background or babies crying.

[adkhighker]

"We need to better organize our teams for speed — allowing us to be more nimble, bring like-work together, and help us make decisions more quickly. Today, I am sharing news about changes we are implementing to better position eBay for long-term, sustainable growth."

I think today's eBay will be fine as long as they don't ruin what's barely left of their original identity by forgetting what put them on the map to begin with, auctions, or by trying to be just like any other company they feel is a threat to them.  I've enjoyed selling part time on eBay for over 2 decades despite how slow they were in making changes that should have been made 10 or 20 years ago and despite them fixing some things by making them worse.  Hopefully any big changes they're about to make will be kept on the administrative side of things, and hopefully they will finally leave the buying and selling process pretty much alone.

[toomuchstuffagain35]

The 1,000 are, but the offshore CSR and IT are on "contracts" which they also talk about cutting back.

[gurlcat]

Uhhhh, would EFB count as an "alternate workforce"?  PLEASESAYNOPLEASESAYNOPLEASESAYNOPLEASESAYNOOOOOOOO.  

[toomuchstuffagain35]

Nope. AFAIK EFB reps are actual employees, not outsourced on contract workers.

[gurlcat]

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@toomuchstuffagain35 wrote:

Nope. AFAIK EFB reps are actual employees, not outsourced on contract workers.

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WHEW, I hope you're right.  Then again even if you are, they said they'll be axing the 'alternate' people in addition to regular ones, so those could include EFB as well.  -They're my #1 concern, as they're the only thing keeping the seller experience from being like a Comcast subscription.  

[wheredidiputthatremote]

Honestly, most long term servers I've encountered day sales have been in the pits - and I concur. The layoffs do not surprise me. It's no wonder they have to cut back with the twice a year updates that say guess what "we're raising fees", or guess what "we're rolling out super ultra promoted listings" - you won't be seen unless you pay. It's gotten to the point where you have to be the bottom dollar and you have to promote. I think it's time they roll back a few updates, fix cassinni so that everybody can be seen once again - and then they might become a sustainable company again. It used to be the more you list, the more you sell. If I'm seeking, you bet eBay is making money too.

[greatmidwestcoin]

Most any size company can reduce their workforce by 9-10% and not have much of a negative impact. The drones left working will pick up the pace as they will have new fire under themselves to avoid the next layoff. The Government should do the same. Been there done that several times.

[greatmidwestcoin]

We can only hope so. It will probably be just the opposite as the US workforce costs the most comparably.