Founded in 2005, Quidsi was known as one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce companies. Quidsi claimed to redefine the e-commerce experience with super fast delivery and elevated customer service. It was a parent company of some major lifestyle e-commerce websites including Diapers, for sold childcare products, Soap, for household essentials, and BeautyBar, for beauty products.
In 2010, Quidsi was acquired by Amazon for $500 million in cash. The acquisition came along with other websites including Yoyo.com, Casa.com, Wag.com, and BeautyBar.com.
In 2017, Amazon shut down the Quidsi unit after it failed to reach profitability. Amazon was finally abandoning its efforts and focusing more on building technology for Amazon Fresh. The shutdown resulted in the layoffs of more than 260 people who were allegedly able to apply for new positions at Amazon.
This was back when Amazon had just started building the Amazon Fresh brand and was delving into the world of grocery delivery services. The company was also showing interest in launching a drive-in grocery store exclusively for Amazon Prime members. Evidently, Amazon had a lot of new ideas up its sleeve, and leaving Quidsi behind allowed them to focus on more profitable ventures.
Despite the project’s failure to reach long-term success, Quidsi’s founder Marc Lore went on to become the Chief Executive Officer at the Jet.com e-commerce startup which was later acquired by Wal-Mart for $3 billion in cash (yer, it served a similar fate and was closed down after the acquisition). He is currently serving as the president and CEO of Wal-Mart’s US e-commerce platform.
