<p>Ottawa-based Shopify announced Thursday it was cutting its global workforce by 20 per cent and offloading its logistics business to Flexport in order to focus on its core e-commerce activities.</p>.<p>In a memo to its more than 11,000 staff, company founder and chief executive Tobias Lutke said: "We are changing the shape of Shopify significantly today to pay unshared attention to our mission."</p>.<p>"This is a consequential and hard week," he said. "It's the right thing for Shopify, but it negatively affects many team members who we admire and love working with."</p>.<p>Lutke, who launched the online platform in 2006, said the company should focus on its core mission of e-commerce.</p>.<p>He said that the company's "side quest" of building out logistics and order fulfillment operations over several years to rival such e-commerce giants as Amazon and Walmart had become a distraction.</p>.<p>Shopify's plunge into transporting and warehousing, and cross docking its e-commerce clients' goods in recent years mirrored similar moves by rivals. All of them expected that a boom in demand through the pandemic would last.</p>.<p>But consumers last year started turning away from online shopping while cutting back on discretionary purchases.</p>.<p>Shopify initially responded by slashing its workforce by 10 percent in July 2022 and trimming its operations.</p>.<p>The sale of Shopify's logistics business to San Francisco-based supply chain technology firm Flexport, Lutke said, would allow the company to end its "split focus."</p>.<p>Shopify's share price jumped 26 to 28 per cent in early trading (1500 GMT) in Toronto and New York following the announcement.</p>
<p>Ottawa-based Shopify announced Thursday it was cutting its global workforce by 20 per cent and offloading its logistics business to Flexport in order to focus on its core e-commerce activities.</p>.<p>In a memo to its more than 11,000 staff, company founder and chief executive Tobias Lutke said: "We are changing the shape of Shopify significantly today to pay unshared attention to our mission."</p>.<p>"This is a consequential and hard week," he said. "It's the right thing for Shopify, but it negatively affects many team members who we admire and love working with."</p>.<p>Lutke, who launched the online platform in 2006, said the company should focus on its core mission of e-commerce.</p>.<p>He said that the company's "side quest" of building out logistics and order fulfillment operations over several years to rival such e-commerce giants as Amazon and Walmart had become a distraction.</p>.<p>Shopify's plunge into transporting and warehousing, and cross docking its e-commerce clients' goods in recent years mirrored similar moves by rivals. All of them expected that a boom in demand through the pandemic would last.</p>.<p>But consumers last year started turning away from online shopping while cutting back on discretionary purchases.</p>.<p>Shopify initially responded by slashing its workforce by 10 percent in July 2022 and trimming its operations.</p>.<p>The sale of Shopify's logistics business to San Francisco-based supply chain technology firm Flexport, Lutke said, would allow the company to end its "split focus."</p>.<p>Shopify's share price jumped 26 to 28 per cent in early trading (1500 GMT) in Toronto and New York following the announcement.</p>