Dive Brief:

• Zulily, the flash-sales site that wowed investors even as the retail approach was coming under question, Thursday announced disappointing Q4 results.

• High distribution costs contributed to the Q4 hit, but the retailer is also struggling to gain and keep customers, observers say.

• The company also announced that CFO Marc Stolzman will depart March 7. Vice president of accounting Tad Larsen will take over from him in the interim.

Dive Insight:

For a while there Zulily seemed to be the bright spot in the flash-sales space. The retailer went public just last year, initially pleasing investors and expanding rapidly. But trouble has come quickly too. Zulily has switched from featuring mostly emerging brands to offering more name-brands, and those shoppers are less loyal, it appears.

“They’ve had high satisfaction rates among their customers, but just how many more customers like that are there?” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney told the Wall Street Journal.