“Say Goodbye to Zulily: Online Retailer Shutting Down!

Online retailer zulily is shutting down: Online retailer zulily, which started out as a flash sale company focusing on women’s and children’s apparel and other products for the home, is shutting down operations. The company, which had gone public in 2013 and currently has over 4.7 million active customers, has been struggling with heavy losses in recent years. The Seattle, Washington-based company will be liquidating all of its assets, including inventory, intellectual property rights, and customer list data. The move to close the company follows a string of different attempts to revive its business, such as selling its assets to a London-based venture capital firm, adding digital products to its platform, bringing on a new CEO, and attempting to expand into the grocery and health and beauty sectors. “We regret to inform our customers that after 17 years of serving their needs, zulily will be winding down operations and will no longer be providing online shopping services,” the company wrote in an email to customers. zulily’s closure underscores the difficulty in succeeding in the competitive e-commerce landscape. Even companies backed by the likes of Softbank’s Vision Fund, Amazon, and Walmart have had tremendous difficulty competing in the highly saturated market. While zulily customers will only have until the end of the year to place orders, the company is offering discounts to make sure its merchandise is sold out before shuttering its operations permanently. Customers are being offered discounts of up to 70 percent in order to clear out its remaining inventory. zulily’s closure is yet another reminder of how challenging the digital retail landscape has become. As more companies struggle to compete in the crowded marketplace, there is no doubt more closures are to come in the near future.