Flexport has laid off about 2% of its employees after further integrating its forwarding and fulfillment teams, a spokesperson for the logistics provider confirmed in an email to Supply Chain Dive on Thursday.
The integration led to redundancies that allowed the company to reduce headcount, the spokesperson added. Flexport has instituted at least four rounds of layoffs since December 2022, including a 20% staffing reduction in October 2023 and a 15% reduction in January 2024 to reduce costs.
"We have made great progress towards our growth and profitability goals in 2024, and the reorganization will enable our teams to leverage Flexport’s full suite of logistics capabilities to solve customer problems and help them grow," the spokesperson said.
The reorganization was "a natural next step" for Flexport after acquiring Shopify's logistics arm last year, per the spokesperson.
The deal gave Flexport e-commerce fulfillment and last-mile delivery capabilities within the U.S., leading to new services catered toward small- and medium-sized businesses like Flexport Revolution. The company has also strengthened its ties with e-commerce channels like Shopify and Shein, extending its services to merchants selling on those platforms.
To what extent Flexport strengthens its SMB offerings further is uncertain, however, as the spokesperson said the company is continuing to sharpen its focus on larger customers. That, along with reducing operating costs, will help the company profitably scale its business, the spokesperson added.
