How it started
History
Zulily was founded in 2009 by former Blue Nile executives Mark Vadon and Darrell Cavens after Vadon's wife had become pregnant, and he was overwhelmed by the process of acquiring the supplies they had not been aware of needing. Zulily went live on January 27, 2010, with an initial focus on children's apparel. By the fourth quarter of 2010, Zulily was a cash-flow–positive business. The company's early strategies included the use of flash sales announced via early-morning emails; by 2012, it had over 10 million members.
When Zulily went public in November 2013, the company had 2.6 million active customers and $331 million in revenue. Its initial public offering valued the company at $2.6 billion. Rather than using a large network of warehouses to quickly ship stored products, Zulily did not purchase the bulk of its product from suppliers until after they were ordered by customers.
In August 2015, Zulily was purchased by Liberty Interactive's QVC division for $2.4 billion. In September 2017, Zulily launched a private label credit card. The company announced a sponsorship of local soccer teams Seattle Sounders FC and Reign FC in January 2019 that included the use of their logo on jerseys.
In May 2023, Qurate Retail announced the sale of Zulily to Regent, L.P. The company's revenue had dropped significantly in 2022 and 2023, which was followed by three rounds of layoffs in the Seattle area. Zulily listed its Belltown headquarters for sale and moved into a smaller space in Seattle's Pioneer Square in October 2023.
Wind down
From Wikipedia’s article on Zulily, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3