Wayfair Beats In Q1

Online home goods retailer Wayfair saw shares surge over 20 percent to an all-time high $61.73 on Tuesday’s (May 9) opening bell after the online home goods retailer posted Q1 financials that largely beat expectations.

For the quarter, Wayfair’s net revenue hit $960.8 million, up 28.6 percent and above analyst’s projections of $935 million, with net revenue from direct retail sales through Wayfair’s websites up 32.1 percent YoY to $940 million. The online home goods retailer also beat out earnings per share estimates by $0.10, posting a loss of $0.48 eps for the quarter.

“We continue to gain significant traction across our key strategic initiatives and steadily increase our market share in the $600 billion dollar home category across North America and Europe,” said Niraj Shah, Wayfair CEO, co-founder and co-chairman.

One of the larger growth areas for the company can be seen in its customer data. Wayfair ended Q1 with 8.9 million active customers, up 46 percent year-on-year, while orders per customer also rose compared to last year to hit 1.73.

Orders delivered in Q1 hit 4.2 million, up 40.6 percent year-on-year. Repeat customers placed 60.4 percent of all orders (or 2.5 million orders) this time around compared to 55.4 percent in Q1 2016.

However, Wayfair did report that the average order size decreased overall, hitting $223 in Q1 2017, down 6.3 percent from $238 in the same period last year.

As to how consumers were making purchases, Wayfair reported that 44.6 percent of direct retail orders were placed via mobile device in the first quarter of 2017 — well above the 38.6 percent seen in Q1 2016.

“With technology and innovation as the backbone of our business,” Shah said, “we feel confident that we have built a category-leading retail brand that is exceptionally well positioned for long-term growth and continued success.”