Alibaba has laid off employees at its U.S. subsidiaries Auctiva and Vendio, according to a source familiar with the matter. When asked, spokesperson Abbygail Reyes replied, “We have made changes that align the organization with the needs of our business and our long-term growth strategy.”
Reyes, technically the spokesperson for Alibaba’s 11 Main, said that was all the news the company would be sharing at this time.
The move comes after the demise of another listing tool for small and medium eBay sellers called MarketplaceAdvisor, formerly called Marketworks. Its owner, ChannelAdvisor, said in January that it was seeing consumer demand on eBay shift towards large and brand-name retailers and branded manufacturers.
Alibaba acquired Auctiva and Vendio in 2010, and the heads of the two companies began jointly developing a new site called 11 Main in 2013. The 11Main.com marketplace launched in 2014, and Vendio’s Mike Effle became its President and General Manager, while Auctiva’s Jeff Schlicht became CEO. According to their LinkedIn profiles, they remain at 11 Main.
Alibaba itself recently announced it had integrated with ecommerce platform Bigcommerce to help merchants source products from its network of Chinese wholesale suppliers.
Note: The article originally ran with the title “Alibaba Layoffs Hit US eBay Listing Tools.” Reyes provided the following statement. “To clarify, Alibaba did not experience layoffs. Auctiva and Vendio are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Alibaba Group and function independently of our parent company.
