San Francisco, Nov 18 (UiTV/IANS) – Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has warned employees that there will be more layoffs at the company in early 2023 “as leaders continue to make adjustments”.
The e-commerce giant publicly confirmed some layoffs on Wednesday and now, Jassy has said more layoffs are coming as Amazon’s annual planning process extends into the new year.
“Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organisations early in 2023,” he said in a statement late on Thursday.
“We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organisations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down,” Sassy added.
- Advertisement -
Amazon will prioritise communicating directly with impacted employees before making broad public or internal announcements.
“This year’s review is more difficult due to the fact that the economy remains in a challenging spot and we’ve hired rapidly the last several years,” said Jassy.
The company did not reveal the exact number of employees being hit although earlier reports put the number at 10,000 employees or 3 per cent of its workforce.
The massive job cuts have hit several divisions, especially the Alexa virtual assistant business and the Luna cloud gaming unit.
“We communicated the difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books businesses, and also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in our People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organisation,” Jassy further said.
“I’ve been in this role now for about a year and a half, and without a doubt, this is the most difficult decision we’ve made during that time,” the Amazon CEO added.
Dave Limp, Senior Vice President of Devices and Services, also wrote an internal post, saying that “after a deep set of reviews, we recently decided to consolidate some teams and programmes”.
“One of the consequences of these decisions is that some roles will no longer be required,” Limp said.
India saw sales worth Rs 76,000 cr
India saw robust online sales worth Rs 76,000 crore in the festive month from September 22 and October 23, a 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth.
According to Bengaluru-based Redseer Strategy Consultants, the tier 2 and above cities drove this growth and contributed 57 per cent of festive GMV (gross merchandise value).
The growth was largely driven by the fashion category, led by unbranded fashion.
“While mobiles and electronics continue to dominate category share, home & kitchen, groceries and beauty personal care were the fastest growing categories. Grocery grew almost 2X from last festive season,” said Sanjay Kothari, Associate Partner, Redseer Strategy Consultants.
Festive Sales have largely become a tier 2 and above phenomenon with 64 per cent of transacting shoppers coming from those cities.
Within beauty, makeup was the most sought-after category with a lot of interest in looking and feeling good, the report mentioned.
In home furnishing and decor, cushion covers, showpiece and decor accents contributed most to the growth.
“Three in four sellers we surveyed reported at least 2X volume growth from business as usual (BAU) during sale days, with strong support from platforms in planning and executing the festive season well. This increase was more visible in lower ASP categories like fashion where 42 per cent of the sellers reported a 3X to 5X growth from BAU,” Kothari said.
Offline retail stores saw robust footfalls during Diwali this year, which is also evidenced by growth seen from movements in Google Mobility Index.
