Online retailer Zulily is shutting down

Online retailer Zulily is shutting down.

Writing on the company’s homepage, an official said Zulily’s leadership had “made the difficult but necessary decision to conduct an orderly wind-down of the business to maximize value for the companies’ creditors.”

“This decision was not easy nor was it entered into lightly,” wrote Ryan Baker, vice president of Douglas Wilson Companies, which is overseeing Zulily’s closure. “However, given the challenging business environment in which Zulily operated, and the corresponding financial instability, Zulily decided to take immediate and swift action.”

Customers with pending orders should expect them to be fulfilled, or receive a refund, by Jan. 22.

Launched in 2010 and based in Seattle, Zulily specialized in children’s and women’s apparel. It went public in 2013, and at one point was valued at approximately $9 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The retailer was long considered a staple of Seattle’s tech scene, and in 2019 signed a multiyear sponsorship deal with the Major League Soccer team Seattle Sounders. More recently, Zulily became known for its aggressive advertising across social media platforms.

The company’s path to liquidation has led to hundreds of layoffs over the past year in multiple states. In May, a private equity firm purchased it from longtime owner Qurate Retail Group, which also owns the QVC and HSN brands popularly known for their television-based shopping channels.

Zulily’s closure comes on the heels of the shutdown of the e-commerce website Jane.com. Both failed to overcome competition from better-capitalized competitors such as the China-based Temu and Shein, as well as Amazon. Earlier this month, Zulily sued Amazon, accusing the retail and shipping logistics giant of anti-competitive practices. An Amazon spokesperson issued a statement denying the allegations.