Wayfair’s Hiring Spree Rolls On

Evidence of a winning run at Wayfair Inc. rolls on, now as the firm scales up its hiring spree.

On the HR docket is the hiring of 1,400 sales and call center employees.

The expansion follows a big year of growth for the online retailer in which direct-to-consumer sales doubled up in 2015. Now the firm says it needs to “scale customer service and sales operations to keep pace with our rapidly growing customer base.”

The new hires will bring 950 full-time jobs to Maine that will fill a currently empty former L.L. Bean call center in Bangor. The hires will also include 500 sales and service positions at Brunswick Landing, a former naval base that is now a business park. Both operations have openings planned for this summer, though no official date has been assigned yet.

Outside of Maine, Wayfair will also hire 450 workers in a new call center in Byran-College Station, Texas.

With the new hires, Wayfair’s global employee base will be 5,209, a 36.8 percent increase from where the firm was at the end of 2015.

The expansion follows what has been a strong — and surprising to many — start for Wayfair Inc in 2016.

The parent company  of the flagship Wayfair.com site and its ancillary sites Joss & Main, AllModern, DwellStudio, and Birch Lane — has roared onto the scene a little over a year out of their IPO, while other firms have struggled to simply not shrink.

“We are continuing to see an industry-wide shift to eCommerce that is especially evident during the peak retail season,” Niraj Shah, CEO, co-founder and co-chairman of Wayfair, noted in a statement. “Wayfair is benefiting from that shift.”