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Two leading e-commerce companies are laying off personnel in a bid to secure their survival. US-based Amazon has announced that it will lay off 1,300 workers or 15 per cent of its staff. Letsbuyit.com, the Dutch trader, will dismiss 200 of its 350 employees. Also the large German e-commerce company Intershop reports major problems, having lost 39.3 million Euro (over 35 million USD) last year.

The dedicated e-traders are not very successful. Letsbuyit.com was close to bankruptcy earlier this month, but was saved by investors raising another 4 million Euro (close to 4 million USD) on 25 January. Amazon, which registered good Christmas sales in the United States, has also difficulties in convincing the outside world that it has a future. It is said to have lost 60 million USD during the last quarter of year 2000.

In addition to a United States based web presence, Amazon has sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. Letsbuyit.com has been present in fifteen countries, but will now pull out of many of these.

13,000 e-commerce jobs are lost this month

The American consultancy firm Gray & Christmas has conducted a survey among US e-commerce companies, which indicates that these e-traders will lay off altogether 13,000 workers this January, which is 23 per cent more than in December.

Many commerce analysts say that it is the multi-channel traders that will dominate the business to consumer e-commerce market. Leading multinational retailers and wholesalers, such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, Ahold and Metro are investing heavily in their web-based businesses and consider them to be an important part of their development strategies.

Some of the North American trade unions are trying to organise the Amazon workers, including Uni Commerce affiliate UFCW.