Groupon cuts another 500 employees in the second round of layoffs

Groupon has laid off another 500 employees in a bid to cut costs, the company said in an SEC filing last week. The e-commerce company had cut 500 jobs — nearly 15% of its workforce then — previously in August 2022.

The company said that this new set of layoffs will be spread across the first two quarters of this year.

“On January 25, 2023, the Board of Directors of Groupon, Inc. approved the second phase of the Company’s multi-phase restructuring plan, which is part of the Company’s comprehensive cost savings plan, announced in August 2022. This second phase is expected to include an overall reduction of approximately 500 positions globally, with the majority of these reductions expected to occur by the end of the second quarter of 2023,” Groupon said in a filing.

The latest round of cuts will impact almost 20% of its employee base — the company reportedly had 2,500 employees in late December.

Over the last week, several employees posted about the layoff on LinkedIn. The company’s Chief People Officer Kirstin Barbor said Groupon “had to part ways with several very talented teammates in NAM, across all levels of leadership.”

TechCrunch sent several emails to Groupon before publishing to get more info about the layoffs, but the company didn’t respond at the time of writing.

Groupon has had several challenges over the years from increasing competition to dwindling userbase. According to Statista, 22.1 million people purchased at least one offer on the site in Q1 2022 — a sharp fall from 53.9 million in Q1 20214.

The company said in the SEC filing that it will save millions in annual costs because of the job cuts.

“The payroll actions under the second phase of the 2022 Restructuring Plan are estimated to result in approximately $70.0 million in annualized cost savings. The Company also intends to implement other non-payroll actions outlined within the 2022 Cost Savings Plan, including reducing technology, software and certain professional services costs. These actions are expected to create an additional $30.0 million in annualized cost savings,” it noted.

In the last 12 months, Groupon stock has dipped more than 72%.