Glossier layoffs explained as beauty company terminates one-third of its workforce 

Luxury brand Glossier laid off 80 of its employees through email, earlier this week. The number made up one-third of the company's total workforce and majorly consisted of the technology team. CEO Emily Weiss wrote in the email:

"We are shifting our technology strategy to leverage external partners for parts of our platform that we currently maintain internally.”

In her email, she described the decision as "difficult" and said the company had "got ahead" of itself on hiring. She added that they had made mistakes in the last two years of business and needed to rectify them. Part of her statement read:

“We prioritized certain strategic projects that distracted us from the laser-focus we needed to have on our core business: scaling our beauty brand.”

The makeup and skincare brand is planning to expand its business in both the online and offline market. In a statement released to Modern Retail with respect to the layoffs, the company said:

“We parted ways earlier today with more than 80 members of our team. This was a difficult but necessary decision. We’ve always been a people-powered organization, and are grateful to all of our current and former team members for their contributions to Glossier. We believe these changes leave us well-positioned as we continue to grow the brand long into the future.”

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The last two years have been difficult for Glossier

The company was a flag-bearer for the introduction of "direct to customer" marketing and described itself as a technology company that connected to its customers directly, through feedback. The strategy helped the company hit major numbers; they sold one Boy Brow, their most popular product, every 32 seconds in 2018.

However, the company suffered a significant loss in 2020 owing to the pandemic, when it had to let go of its entire retail staff and shut down all physical stores, including its flagship store in New York City. It also received a major backlash when a former employee spoke about racism in one of their stores. Glossier issued a public apology to the ex-employee and promised to improve their work environment.

According to the Business of Fashion, the company saw a 22% dip in its sales during the holiday season in 2021.

After managing to raise $80 million through Series E funding in July 2021, the company currently seems to be focusing on retail. Glossier has opened three new offline stores in Seattle, Los Angeles, and London. They have also reopened their New York store and plan to open many more, as claimed by their website.