StockX Lays Off 8% of Workforce, Citing ‘Macroeconomic Challenges’
StockX has undergone another round of layoffs, as the company looks to keep business strong during a tough environment for retailers.
The layoffs affect 8% of the company’s total workforce, StockX confirmed. Impacted employees will receive severance packages and health benefits for a period of time after termination.
The resale platform’s CEO Scott Cutler announced the layoffs to employees in an email on Tuesday, which was viewed by Footwear News. According to the email, StockX has taken measures to reduce costs by prioritizing existing investments, reducing discretionary expenses, placing limits on new hires and improving efficiency in the company’s trade process.
“In this environment, we must adapt, exercise additional discipline and be very deliberate about our spending,” Cutler said in the email.
In a statement to FN, StockX said that it needed to adapt and pivot its business to keep up with “macroeconomic challenges” that are currently impacting the economy and its business.
“While our business continues to grow, the current climate calls for us to make adjustments,” the company said. “As a result, we made the difficult but prudent decision to reduce our workforce.”
This announcement marks the latest round of layoffs for Stock. In April of 2020, StockX cut 12% of its workforce to “ensure long-term sustainability.” StockX said the number of impacted employees at the time amounted to less than 150. And according to a report in Insider, StockX had quietly undergone two previous rounds of layoffs before its third and largest round on April 23.
The April layoffs came shortly after StockX came under fire on social media for its new 3% processing fee to customers that added to the purchase price of an item. In an email to consumers, the company stated the fee was added so it can continue to make investments into the platform, customer service and the verification process. It went into effect on April 22.
As of the conclusion of a $195 million secondary tender offering and an additional $60 million in Series E-1 primary shares in April of 2021, StockX has a $3.8 billion valuation.