Dive Brief:

• Wayfair reported on Thursday that direct retail net revenue, which primarily consists of sales generated through its sites, rose 39% year over year to $1.9 billion, an increase of $542.3 million.

• Wayfair's net loss widened to $200.4 million from $107.8 million in the year-ago period, according to a company press release. The company reported negative adjusted EBITDA of $102.2 million, or 5.3% of total net revenue, from negative $49.96 million in the year-ago period.

• The company's number of active customers rose 39% from the year-ago period to 16.4 million. 

Dive Insight:

While direct retail net revenues increased for Wayfair — whose operations are comprised of Wayfair, Joss & Main, AllModern, Birch Lane and Perigold — it wasn't all rosy for the online furniture retailer.

The company's net loss widened to $200.4 million, which caused its stock to fall in premarket trading on Thursday, according to MarketWatch. 

But Wayfair's executives said the company's outlook was positive related to the gains it did achieve in growing revenue, active users, order volume and order value.

"Our ongoing investments in building our logistics infrastructure, deepening our product offering, and finding new ways to serve our customer are just a few of the many areas that are driving the momentum we are seeing today," CEO Niraj Shah said in a statement.

The company also hosted its second annual "Wayday" last month, and while those sales were not reflected in this quarter's earnings results, the self-proclaimed sales holiday averaged a 325% higher revenue than that of the previous 28 days, according to Edison Trends data emailed to Retail Dive. The flash sale also accounted for 339% more orders and 315% more unique customers, per the data.

"Way Day, our biggest retail event of the year, was a tremendous success for the business breaking our record for the highest revenue grossing day in company history," Shah added. 

Wayfair also noted that its mobile business in the quarter grew, with 53.4% of total orders in the quarter placed via mobile, compared to 49.2% in the year-ago quarter. The company in March announced that it would expand its brick-and-mortar footprint with its first permanent store opening this fall at the Natick Mall in Natick, Massachusetts, in addition to four pop-up shops opening this summer.

"We look forward to the sizeable opportunity ahead as we continue to transform the experience of shopping for the home and remain well positioned to take share of the dollars that are coming online in the home category," Shah said.