Wayfair revenue soars 76% on healthy repeat business

Dive Brief:

Online home furnishings and décor retailer Wayfair on Monday reported that first quarter direct retail revenue (consisting of sales generated primarily through the sites of its five brands) rose to $711.8 million from $342.5 million, up 92.7% year over year. Wayfair's Q1 total net revenue increased $323 million to $747.3 million, up 76.1% year over year.
Wayfair delivered 3 million orders in Q1 2016, an increase of 66.7% year over year. Average order value was $238 for the quarter, up from $206 a year ago. Wayfair's mobile orders also are growing: 38.6% of total Q1 orders delivered were placed via a mobile device, up from 33.8% year over year, according to a press release.
Wayfair reported an overall first-quarter loss of $41.2 million, or 49 cents a share, compared losses of $27.1 million, or 33 cents a share, in Q1 2015. Excluding items, losses were 36 cents a share, the company. Analysts forecasted a loss of 33 cents a share, according to MarketWatch.

Dive Insight:

Wayfair, whose furnishings and home goods brands include its flagship Wayfair site, Joss & Main, Dwell Studio, All+ Modern and Birch Lane, has long enjoyed a stellar repeat-customer record through its proprietary data analytics platform, which fosters a personalized online shopping experience.

Wayfair's active customer ranks reached 6.1 million in the first quarter of 2016, up 68.9% year over year. Q1 orders per customer, measured as last twelve months (LTM) orders divided by active customers, increased to 1.71 up from 1.64 a year ago. LTM net revenue per active customer increased to $392, up 13.3% year over year. Repeat customers placed 1.7 million orders in Q1, an increase of 71.4% year over year, and 55.4% of total Q1 orders, compared to 53.9% year over year.

“We are excited to report yet another quarter of exceptional revenue growth as we continue to take about 40% of the U.S. online dollar growth in our categories in the last 12 months,” Wayfair CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah said in a statement. “We are seeing tremendous traction with both new customer growth and repeat purchases as we focus on leveraging technology and innovation to reinvent the way customers shop for home and build a truly differentiated retail experience.”

Shah noted that Wayfair is expanding its merchandise and increasingly assists customers with more complex purchases—a potential pain point in online shopping for furnishings—through specialized assistance. Wayfair also said its expansions into Europe and Canada are continuing apace.