Amazon tells Engadget that it will lay off about five percent of the staff in its Buy with Prime division. Launching in 2022, Buy with Prime extends membership benefits to third-party merchants who sell and ship products on other sites. CNBC first reported cuts on Thursday.
An Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email to Engadget that the cuts were part of a standard review of its business needs. “We regularly review the structure of our teams and make adjustments based on business needs and, following a recent review, we made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles in our shop with Prime team,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon has not indicated how many employees there are in the division, but a source with knowledge of the matter tells Engadget that around 30 employees are affected by the cuts.
Amazon says Shopping with Prime remains a core focus. “Shopping with Prime is a priority for Amazon, with strong merchant adoption and positive customer feedback, and we will continue to invest significant resources in Shopping with Prime to build on that momentum,” the spokesperson wrote to Engadget. “We thank these employees for their contributions and are focused on supporting them in their next steps.”
The company spokesperson tells Engadget that laid-off workers will receive at least 50 days of pay and benefits and will be eligible for a severance package. Additionally, the company says it is working to find new roles within Amazon for the reduced staff.
Although the number is much smaller this time, the layoffs are in addition to the more than 27,000 workers Amazon has laid off since the end of 2022 (part of a brutal year of job cuts in the tech world at large). The most recent round, earlier this month, hit Prime Video, MGM Studios, Audible, and Twitch. Amazon stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/gross-profit#:~:text=Amazon%20gross%20profit%20for%20the%20twelve%20months%20ending%20September%2030,increase%20year%2Dover%2Dyear.”>recorded record profits in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-latest-layoffs-hit-buy-with-prime-what-lets-you-use-prime-benefits-on-other-websites-212140862 .html?src=rss
