Amazon seller Packable is reportedly shutting down

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Packable, the parent company of a third-party seller on Amazon, is reportedly cutting staff and preparing to shut down, according to CNBC.

CNBC reported that Packable's chief people officer Leanna Bautista said in a notice to employees on 22 August that it was laying off 138 people, or roughly 20% of its staff, with the remaining 372 employees expected to be terminated as ‘individual winddown responsibilities are completed.’

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Packable for a statement.

The notice said Packable failed to secure new financing that would have enabled it to stay in business. "We diligently pursued internal and external financing options but were ultimately unsuccessful," the company said. "Given the company has no viable financing alternatives, we are now forced to cease operations, liquidate any remaining collateral, and shut down the business, including the facility you report to."

Packable is the parent company of Pharmapacks, an online seller of health, personal care and beauty products. Founded in 2011, Packable partners with brands of all sizes to develop a customised eCommerce strategy to help them win big across marketplaces. The company makes scaling up easy by managing the entire eCommerce ecosystem, from purchasing inventory and managing product pages through to data-driven marketing and fulfillment, according to its official website

Headquartered in New York, Packable operates in the third-party (“3P”) space across seven online marketplaces in North America, including Amazon - where Packable is the largest 3P seller in the US by number of reviews -- Walmart, eBay, Target, and Google Shopping, among others, and also manages several direct-to-consumer (“DTC”) sites on behalf of brands.

Packable's last year was full of turbulences. The company announced the plans to merge with a SPAC — Highland Transcend Partners I Corp in September in a deal that valued the company at US$1.55 billion, the market started to turn and investors lost their appetite for SPACs, according to CNBC.

In March, Packable cancelled the deal to take the company public, simply explaining this was due to 'unfavorable market conditions', just days before Highland Transcend's shareholders were scheduled to meet. Packable's CEO Andrew Vagenas resigned in April, and was succeeded by Daniel Myers, a former supply chain executive at Mondelez, according to the company's website.

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