Staples Inc., the office supply giant that is looking to reinvent itself, announced Thursday the opening of a development center in Seattle that will be home to teams dedicated to powering "innovative e-commerce."
In the face of competition from the likes of retail behemoth Amazon.com, Framingham-based Staples has been looking to transition more of its business online. (In March, Staples disclosed plans to close up to 225 stores.) As part of its online transition strategy, Staples announced the opening of its Seattle development center last September.
In a Thursday press release, Faisal Masud, the company's executive vice president for global e-commerce, said: "Seattle has a wealth of talented engineers and leaders who are perfect matches for the opportunities at Staples, primarily around using big data to develop a personalized shopping experience and developing innovative global services. At the Development Center, we're building core components to power innovative e-commerce. Our marketers and merchants will test and launch rapid innovative online selling models, targeting the right customer with the right products at the right time."
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The Development Center is the company's second West Coast lab. In the Silicon Valley area, the San Mateo Innovation Lab is focused on personalizing the shopping experience.
But even as the company looks to push the envelope on e-commerce, it has come under fire for the old-school practice of awarding bonuses to top executives following a year of suboptimal financial performance.
Chris Reidy can be reached at reidy@globe.com.