Amazon shuts down Diapers.com and other Quidsi sites

Wednesday, March 29, 2017 Unknown 0 Comments Category :

Its Definitely a sad day for mothers across the United States
Amazon said today that it was shutting down Quidsi, the company behind Diapers.com and Soap.com that it acquired for $545m less than seven years ago, after failing to make the websites profitable. “We have worked extremely hard for the past seven years to get Quidsi to be profitable, and unfortunately we have not been able to do so,” said Amazon in an emailed statement.
“Quidsi has great brand expertise and they will continue to offer selection on Amazon.com; the software development team will focus on building technology for AmazonFresh.”

Amazon will shut down Diapers.com and the other websites operated by its Quidsi division, the company confirmed to Bloomberg today, citing the division’s lack of profitability as the reason behind the decision. Quidsi’s acquisition by Amazon for $545 million was announced back in November 2010, and included the flagship Diapers.com brand, as well as the other one to two-word domains like Soap.com and BeautyBar.com.

Amazon had continued to invest in Quidsi’s business over the years following the acquisition, even launching new brands like green grocer VineMarket.com, for example, and bringing the individual sites to mobile devices, including iPad.
There are several brands today operated by the company, each focusing on a particular vertical – like Wag.com for pet items, YoYo.com for toys, and others.
Quidsi itself was originally started by Marc Lore, who more recently sold his latest e-commerce business Jet.com to Walmart for $3 billion in cash. At Walmart, Lore is now the head of the retailer’s e-commerce operations – an area of its business that has been increasingly acquisitive in recent months, as well. The company has picked up other online retailers, including ModCloth, Moosejaw, Hayneedle, and ShoeBuy.
Amazon had originally snapped up Quidsi to eliminate the competition on the market, but the sites today overlap a lot with its core business – for example, Amazon has its own business aimed at helping new parents save on diapers and other baby items, Amazon Family (originally Amazon Mom), which competes for the same audience as Diapers.com.

However, the exact date for shutting down Quidsi was not stated ,but it does not appear customers have yet been notified.

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