Staples Is Putting Its Money Where Its Mouth Is For E-Commerce

By Sam Lewis

First west coast facility aspiring to re-invigorate office supply retailer after announcing a renewed focus on growing e-commerce

America’s largest retailer of office supplies is making another move to gain ground on e-commerce giant Amazon. Framingham, MA-based Staples has announced plans for its first-ever west coast office, located in Seattle, which will focus on the company’s efforts to improve engineering and e-commerce.

Staples has laid claim to being the second largest internet retailer, trailing only Amazon, but by an enormous margin, nearly $40 billion. The announcement of the new Seattle development center seems to be the first step in the company’s new dedication to e-commerce. Staples plans to close some of its brick-and-mortar stores, shrink the size of retail locations, restructure management, and focus more of its business to the web. By 2015, Staples expects to cut physical retail space by 15 percent, while refurbishing some locations to be friendlier to omnichannel shopping — blending in-store, online, and mobile commerce. “Staples is changing the way customers shop online,” says Faisal Masud, VP of global e-commerce at Staples. “Seattle is an innovation hub rivaling Silicon Valley and features some of the world’s biggest technology companies. Staples new Development Center will allow us to tap into the wide range of talented engineering and e-commerce professionals on the West Coast.”

In the September 12 press release, Staples says it will restructure its staff to adapt to its changes in business model. Many positions in software development, product management and usability, analytics, and online merchandising will be created as the company invests itself into new omnichannel capacities. “Staples is investing in areas with high concentrations on the e-commerce and engineering talent that will be key to our success. We will build integrated, collaborative teams with the goal of making the shopping experience easy,” says Prakash Muppirala, VP of e-commerce engineering at Staples. The release noted that Staples plans to open the new Seattle facility sometime in the next few months.