Wayfair's Q4 strong as repeat orders surge
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Wayfair's fourth quarter earnings were better than expected as the company ended 2020 with 31.2 million active customers, up 53.7% from a year ago.
CEO Niraj Shah said that the company is poised to gain share. "As we look beyond the pandemic period, we are confident that our long-term orientation and years of investments should translate to compounding share gains and increasing profitability in a rapidly growing e-commerce market," said Shah.
Wayfair has benefited from remote work and education trends as consumers upgraded home offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company, one of the e-commerce players along with Carvana and Zillow that have been able to digitize commerce for big purchases, reported fourth quarter earnings of $23.8 million, or 23 cents a share, on revenue of $3.7 billion, up 44.9% from a year ago. Non-GAAP earnings were $1.24 a share.
Wall Street was expecting fourth quarter revenue of $3.79 billion with non-GAAP earnings of 86 cents a share.
For 2020, Wayfair reported earnings of $185 million, or $1.86 a share, on revenue of $14.1 billion, up 55% from 2019.
Wayfair said repeat customers placed 72.5% of total orders in the fourth quarter, up from 68.6% a year ago. The average order value in the fourth quarter was $223, down slightly from $226 a year ago. Nearly 60% of orders in the fourth quarter were placed via a mobile device.