eBay laid off employees at its Magento division, it confirmed, with Recode reportingMagento’s head of product Jimmy Duvall among the “dozens” of those laid off. eBay Enterprise absorbed Magento into its unit in November, possibly a contributing factor to the layoffs.
Recode also speculated on whether the layoffs would have an impact on Magento Go, a web-hosted solution that allows retailers to open their own ecommerce websites for as low as $15/month. Magento Go launched in 2011 and is somewhat similar to eBay’s own ProStores hosted solution.
We asked eBay if it was still actively marketing Magento Go and ProStores to sellers, and what eBay would tell sellers using Magento Go who were worried it might be retired. eBay spokesperson Kelly Henry told EcommerceBytes, “Magento Go and ProStores are available to sellers. Regarding your other inquiry, we don’t comment on speculation or rumors. We are a customer-centric organization and any changes to our products and services will be directly communicated to our clients at the appropriate time and with their best interest in mind.”
Noting that former head of ProStores Lin Shearer had moved to Magento Enterprise, we also asked Henry whether ProStores sellers should be worried and who was replacing Shearer at ProStores. “We currently have resources internally to support both the Magento Go and ProStores products,” she said.
ProStores has marketed Magento to its own sellers, as EcommerceBytes reported in 2012, and provides a chart to guide sellers as to which platform they should consider. For now, as Henry said, both solutions remain available, a seeming redundancy in eBay’s product offerings.
