‘Usually for clearance sales, the goods in the inventory run out, this time the workers are gone.’
The e-commerce giant, Shopee, also felt the effects of the economic downturn when it had to lay off a number of its employees across various markets.
It is understood that the action was taken in an effort to re-rationalize its e-commerce business, which is flanked by problems including inflation and interest rates that could affect the retail sector as well as consumption.
According to sources, the Southeast Asian market has been the victim of the ‘clearance sale’ with a number of workers in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam being laid off.
Each employee is said to have received a notice of termination of service via email from the company.
In addition, Shopee's payment arm, ShopeePay, and ShopeeFood's food delivery business also suffered the same fate.
It is said that almost half of the total Shopee food payment and delivery team in Thailand has been affected as a result of the action.
A separate source said Shopee would also discontinue its recruitment and job offering program at the regional level.
So far it is still not possible to clearly state the exact number affected by the retrenchment action.
Meanwhile, Shopee's parent company, Sea Group, is showing signs of increasing profits through its gaming arm, Garena.
Sea Group’s first quarter (1Q) 2022 profit rose 64.4% year -on -year to $ 2.9 billion with its gross profit jumping 81.3% to $ 1.2 billion for the same period.
Although Shopee’s business suffered losses, on a Q1 annual basis the company grew 71.3% at $ 1.9 billion while the value of goods rate increased 38.7% at $ 17.4 billion.
Shopee’s gross profit margin also expanded year -on -year with rapid growth in transaction -based fees and advertising revenue over other services.
