Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce giant that was once the country’s most valuable company, is laying off roughly 1,000 employees or 10 per cent of its workforce.
CEO Tobi Lütke said in a letter to employees made public Tuesday that the company made a bet that the global retail transition to e-commerce, which picked up during the COVID-19 pandemic, would continue to accelerate.
The Ottawa-based company, which backs digital storefronts and provides a variety of e-commerce services to its “millions” of merchants, had scaled up its workforce to meet the demand it projected, Lütke wrote.
As of March 1, 2020, Shopify said it had more than 5,000 employees; as of Tuesday it said it has more than 10,000 without accounting for the layoffs.