Meta Lays Off 11,000 Employees - Is Commerce Important Going Forward?

eCommerce

Nov 9

My heart goes out to the Meta employees affected by this first of all. It's not exactly surprising this happening, I'm sure even to some within the company as Meta's financial and priority issues have been apparent for some time now.

The "other shoe" to drop in this situation is their revised priorities in the future. With an ad business that is being rebuilt, Tiktok being fought off, and Metaverse struggling with being wayyyyyy ahead of the curve, where does eCommerce fit in this mix?

I'm waiting to see what happens here, but I suspect we already know the answer -- nowhere. Commerce while theoretically important, is an afterthought to the ad business, which is I guess an afterthought to the metaverse? (who knows!)

If Meta can't reverse user engagement and Tiktok trends, everything else is elementary. So I expect a "all hands on deck" situation, some more mea culpas to go around, and a more honest reckoning of the current situation.

Look, Meta is still a tremendous company and still very profitable -- just less profitable due to self-inflicted issues... So it's pretty simple theoretically to right the profitability ship. Not simple to re-engage and grow users again.

metacommercetiktokprofitabilitylayoffs

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/

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