What: The company said it would remove several hundred overhead roles from its workforce of about 17,000. The cuts come in corporate functions and not in the staffing of “frontline” roles in logistics centres, customer care and outlet stores or in Zalando Studios.

Why it is important: Zalando — like other e-commerce companies and many fashion players — grew quickly during the pandemic and has since seen those tailwinds subside as life returned to normal and inflation hit the economy.

The full scope of the cuts is still to be determined. The senior leadership level will be impacted.

Zalando isn’t the only e-commerce company to find itself leaning too far forward when the market shifted. Amazon started laying off 18,000 workers in January and Shopify laid off 10% of its workers last summer. Traditional retailers have also been cutting back, from Neiman Marcus Group to Kohl’s Corp.

Zalando to cut jobs