Shopify, a Canadian multinational company offering a cloud-based e-commerce platform, is cutting 20% of its workforce, affecting over 2,000 employees.
The company also plans to sell most of its logistics arm to Flexport.
- In a company blog post, Shopify’s Chief Executive Tobias Lütke highlighted the difference between “main quests” and “side quests,” stating that “the main quest of the company is its mission, the reason for the company to exist. Side quests are everything else.” He added that side quests “are always distracting because the company has to split focus.”
- Lütke referred to Shopify’s logistics business as a side quest that “started to create the conditions for our main quest to succeed” and that the next step is to make Flexport the preferred logistics partner for Shopify.
- Flexport is a U.S.-based company specializing in a technology platform for logistics and supply chain management.
- Affected employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of severance pay plus an additional week for each year worked at Shopify.