Rakuten’s Play.com is restructuring, including reshuffling senior management and putting employees across the business into consultation.
Staff will soon enter a period of consultation which may continue until mid-June, a Rakuten spokesperson confirmed. Redundancies are expected at the etailer.
Etailer Rakuten, which bought Play.com in 2011, plans for its online marketplaces to operate as a single global platform which it said will impact “a number of areas of the business”.
Japanese firm Rakuten operates shopping sites across the world including in the US, France, Brazil and Germany. It also owns TV streaming site Wuaki.tv and ereader Kobo.
A Rakuten spokeswoman for Rakuten said: “Rakuten Group has recently accelerated the execution of this strategy, which will strongly support future growth of the marketplace model and Rakuten within the UK.
“As a result, Rakuten’s Play.com anticipate that a number of areas of their business will be affected and in the coming weeks they will be entering into a period of consultation with staff on the proposed changes.”
A source told Retail Week said that up to 100 jobs could be axed, although Rakuten rejected that figure.
A raft of management changes have also been made at the Rakuen’s Play.com. Chief financial officer Mike Bishop has become managing director of the marketplace, replacing Shingo Murakami who is taking on a role supporting the strategic development of Rakuten’s European marketplace.
Meanwhile chief information officer Francesco De Marchis, who has been at the business three years, is leaving the business along with chief operating officer David Rimmer, who is exiting Play.com after seven years to join MusicMagpie.com.
Patrick Kelly, who was ecommerce category director, is being promoted to commercial director and will take responsibility for the sales, merchant services and ecommerce teams.
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